Operation Noah
by Azrael The Deplorable
Summary: Join Black and Blue team on a journey on Maethrillian to help end a galactic genocide of a neighboring galaxy to secure Forerunner artifacts, tech, and ships. Will they succeed in ending the Reaper menace alongside with the help of Commander Shepard and crew? Or will there be more bodies for the grave? Disclaimer I do not own Halo or Mass Effect.
1. Chapter 1

Operation: Noah Mass Effect X Halo Crossover

A/N: I'm a very new and amateur author, please try to be civil, and give out constructive criticism, please and thank you. Please enjoy this story.

Chapter 1: A offer You Can't Refuse

"Squad leader, what is our mission objective?" asked Fred-104 to John, his squad leader for the mission to search for Black team on Installation-03.

"Black team went dark just three days ago and we have no distress signal or any signals of any kind," said John answering Fred's question.

"Take note that Black team was to be on Ivanoff station, thankfully they weren't," John said remembering what the Didact did on Ivanoff station and the horrible deaths of the local scientists, soldiers, and others that were on the station.

"Yeah. We know what happened at that station John. Hopeful we don't lose more of our fellow Spartans in arms." said Kelly-087.

John nodded in response to Kelly's notion of finding Black team alive and well.

"We are almost at the landing zone," said John grabbing his MA5D rifle and M6H magnum, while the rest of Blue team grabs their respective weapons and prepare for to disembark the pelican.

Blue team successfully lands in the desert area of Installation-03 near a makeshift camp of tents. Blue team searches the camp and surrounding area to no avail of signs of Black team, just four bed like objects formed from crates, missing weapons, ammo, and some grenades. No signs of combat on any scale is seen by Blue team. The blue team forms up in the middle of the camp for a brief debrief on Black team's whereabouts.

"John, I can't find anything on where Black team went. Just missing weapons, ammo, and other equipment," stated Linda-058.

"I didn't find anything either. No signs of combat, no blood of humans or Covenant, tracks would obvious would be lost already," said Kelly pointed out the lite breeze of the desert.

"They most likely left to go somewhere, but where?" said John not asking anyone in particular.

"We could start by heading that way," said Fred pointed towards the smoke trail in the sky, and making everyone turn to see what Fred was pointing at.

"Well, it's better than nothing," said Kelly already walking in the direction of the smoke trail.

"Linda Sc.," said John before being interrupted by kinda.

"Already on it" quickly said, Linda.

The blue team arrives at the origin of the smoke trail, to only get to see a smoldering wreckage of something that is not known to Blue team.

"Well, that's definitely not Black team," said Kelly is the first one to arrive.

"there's more up here," said Linda still scouting out the area and watching out for any signs of Black team. The rest of the Blue team quickly converge at Linda's point and see the multiple crash sites scattered across the desert.

"This is definitely not a ship crash site, too spread out no trail of the ships possible trajectory," stated Fred analyzing the area.

"Could be cargo, no they would have landed or if it's cargo for Black team drop pods," said Kelly gave herself a light nudge for it even being cargo at all.

"Yeah, they are not cargo or possibly any known ship at all," said Linda looking down the sights her sniper rifle on each smoldering wreck to confirm her statement.

"Cheif, we should radio back to HIGHCOM on the situation. We might need a full search party to scan the area," said Fred subtly employing that this meant to be a waste of the team's time or that they will need back up. Either way, this will take a while.

"We will keep searching for now. Linda do you see any structuring the area?" asked John.

"No, I got nothing...Wait!" said Linda now getting on one knee looking down her sights on something in the desert.

Everyone snaps his or her weapons to the ready to use and aim down sights in Linda's direction and joining her on one knee.

"What is it?" question, John.

"Chief, silver-blue spherical object heading our way fast! Point eight clicks out and closing!" yelled Linda.

'Silver-blue spherical object' John said questioning himself on what it is. Then he finally notices it, it was a monitor.

"Be ready, it's a monitor," said John in a deadpanned voice.

The blue team acknowledged John's order and waited for the monitor to approach them. The monitor finally approaches them and spoke to John.

"Greeting reclaimers, I am 049 Abject Testament, Monitor of Installation-03. Please hurry 859 Static Carillon and Offensive Bias desperately need your help!" half yelled Abject Testament.

"Whoa, slow down. We didn't come here to help you in any your experiments or galactic genocide super weapon," stated Kelly a little bit upset about 343 Guilty Spark lying about the Halo Array.

"Thisisaboutapossiblegalacticgenocideandyoumusthurry!" said Testament yelling and blurring his words and getting behind John lightly pushing him.

John grabs Testament from behind him and holds him in his grip tightly and question Testament.

"Slow down, what are you talking about?' asked John still hold the monitor tightly in his grip.

The monitor finally slows and the monitor catches his composure. "Every fifty thousand years there is a mass galactic genocide of a neighboring galaxy, and the time of the galactic genocide is upon us and we need your help," said Testament trying to loosen John's grip.

"We didn't come here to help you, we came here to find Black team," said John letting go of Testament, spinning out of control for a few seconds and oriented himself to John and pushed forward trying again to get John to move and come with him.

"Yes, we know. They told us that the reclaimer government would search for them," said Testament.

"Who are they?" questioned John.

"They are the team of Warriors known as Black!" replied Testament.

"Where are they?" asked John a little bit shocked that Black team's willfulness of following the monitor's story.

"They are at The Captial, and waiting for you," said Testament.

John grabs the monitor again to stop him from his futile attempt to push the Spartan. "Why would Black team help you? They know that Forerunner monitors spell nothing but trouble, and what's this about another galactic genocide?" John said questioning the monitor trying to see if it has any ill will towards them and just using the Black team as a cover.

"Around hundred fifty thousand years ago life workers detected a subsonic signal and many others coming from a neighboring galaxy, followed by a galactic war," said Testament answering John's question.

"What made the Forerunners think that it was genocide and not war, as you just stated?"

"I was getting to that." said Testament and continuing, "During said time period life workers registered what was fighting planet by planet, and leave said planets in ruins and uninhabitable. The war would continue onward until there were no signals at all, except for the subsonic signal. Offensive Bias and 859 Static Carillon can tell you more." said Testament trying a different method to get them to come with him.

John is just left thinking about what to do about Black team and them abandoning their post but also confused about why they would and why they trusted the AIs of the Forerunners for their very deceptive way of helping the galaxy just like Guilty Spark and how he almost tricked John into activating a Halo ring. John put his thoughts about Guilty Spark to the side and ponder on this galactic war, or genocide of a neighboring galaxy, and how this got the Black team to agree to help them. ' _Just more questions to ask.'_ John said thinking to himself.

 _'Sigh',_ "Take us to them. We have questions that need answers." said John frustrated with the turn of events.

"Chief?" asked Kelly a bit of doubt in her voice.

"John are you sure about this?" asked Fred asking the question on everybody's mind.

"It's the only way to get some answers," answered John.

With a non-verbal 'Okay' from the whole of Blue team and return their attention to Testament.

"Please stand still, I shall teleport you to The Capital," said Testament jovially proclaiming his success in his mission to get the reclaimers to join them.

 **Maethrillin/ The Capital**

"Here we are reclaimers, The Capital." said Testament finishing the teleporting process on a landing platform to an unknown building.

Blue team is more focus on the awe-inspiring city in the distance. Extremely tall buildings with geometric and angular structures dominated the view of Blue team. Small dots are flying around the large and very tall cityscape. Blue team presumes the small dots were Sentinels of all types doing whatever they did in this gigantic city. Looking up the Blue team saw a yellow dwarf star, much like Earth and Sol. They could tell it was the afternoon due to the position of the sun in the sky (Blue team can't tell that the sun is artificial). Testament ever so kindly gestured for them to enter an elevator and go down some levels.

"Unfortunately reclaimers I must return to my Halo ring. Offensive Bias and 859 Static Carillon will meet you in the council chambers. Good day to you reclaimers." said Testament teleporting back to his ring.

Now alone in the elevator, Blue team silently go down to the lower levels of the presumed government building, and walked towards a pair of hardlight doors and enter the room that looks like the House of Representative debate hall. In the center of the hall was Black team standing on a floating platform next to what they could reduce was Carillon and Offensive Bias.

"Chief." greeted Black leader extending a hand to greet him.

"Margaret." said John gripping Margaret's hand and greeted the other members of Black team: Roma-143, Otto-031, and Victor-101."Margaret, can you explain to me why you and the rest of Black team have failed to report back to HIGHCOM, and why you have to abandon your post?" said John in his very Spartan professional tone.

"Sir! We are acting on ONI Directive 65A-98805. The directive states that any and all Forerunner ships, technology, and constructs are to be successfully captured, logged, and studied by ONI, UNSC, and the UEG, Sir." stated Margaret-053 answer John's question in the same spartan professional tone.

"Acknowledged." John said before continuing, "How does this neighbor galaxy going through a galactic war, or genocide has to do with the directive of Forerunner tech?" asked John.

"We were negotiating for ONI to go unhindered with the research of Forerunner tech. On another note, we also get Forerunner made UNSC ships, medical, food, weapons, and etc... To be honest with you sir, the offer they gave us was an offer you couldn't refuse." said Otto jumping into the exchange and answering John's question.

John was a bit shocked by this for the Forerunner AIs to just give them a huge helping hand in figuring out their tech. John takes it all in," I can see how that can benefit the UNSC, but that doesn't explain your absence Black team or the neighboring galaxy?"

"You saw all of that debris right?" said Margaret.

All of Blue team nodded in agreement, and she continued.

"That debris was from the Didact's ship the Mantle's Approach."

Blue team's collective blood just ran cold, mostly John for what he had to go through. The death of Cortana was not easy on John, but having Blue team back eased the pain a little.

"We saw all that debris just drop out of slipspace over the ring and we went to investigate the crash sites, only to find the Didact himself comatose on the desert floor."

John visibly tensed up when Margaret said that they found the Didact STILL ALIVE! 'How can the Didact even be alive after what I did to him?!' said John thinking to himself. Kelly and the rest of Blue team saw John visibly tense up, and Kelly took the lead is a bit more compassionate than she follows Spartans, and put a hand on John's shoulder, "It's okay John, we're here now and we're not going."

Offensive Bias and Static Carillon stepped in finished the rest, with Static taking the initiative, "I was immediately alerted that a composer was in use. I immediately knew there was only one person alive and knew how to locate the composers, the Didact. I soon Brought a pair of Picket cruisers and a new Cryptum to the Sol system. Fortunately, you reclaimer dispelled the Didact's ship and him too. Making him going through the Composer's Abyss and bought me some time to get to him and put him in the cryptum, but there were some complications. For some reason, an Ancilla was going to the Domain and most likely going to take over said Domain and Guardian system in it."

John was a bit surprised and happy that the Ancilla that Static was hopefully referring to Cortana."That would be Cortana! Is she okay?" asked John worried for his AI companion.

Offensive was the one to speak up on the matter at hand, "The ancilla you speak of reclaimer is in a sorry state of having a large piece of the ancilla's core missing and in a bad state of rampancy. We can talk more in-depth about it reclaimer later."

"Yeah, I'm sorry John," said Victor and with the rest of Black nodding in agreement with Victor.

"Yeah, Static here basically saved our lives by containing the Didact. Then that was when Offensive Bias showed up with his super dreadnought and told us about the galactic genocide of a neighboring galaxy, and his offer," stated Margaret looking at Offensive Bias' massive AI core.

"Yes, I did reclaimer. I need all eight of you to help me to index the species of the said galaxy, and have you take your rightful place as the bearers of The Mantle of Responsibility."

John was still thinking about the possibility of Cortana still being alive, and worried about the state she was in when she died.'I will keep my promise to you Cortana' said John slightly out loud.

Fred was now stepping in as Blue team's squad leader as fell completely silent, "I would presume that the offer stands with helping the neighboring galaxy." asked Fred. Offensive Bias answered Fred's question, "Yes, that would be correct reclaimer." Fred continues with his questions, "What makes you think we can help whoever is the victim of whatever is doing this galactic genocide? How do you know if it's just a super advanced race being exterminated in this war, or it's the other way around and it's the advance race doing it? What is 'Indexing a specie' mean? How would we stop them?"

"You would, of course, have my help and I will be at your service. The Librarian and Chant-To-Green sent out hundreds of probes with my lesser Ancilla brethen The-Eye-From-The-Void to send back any information on the galaxy. From what the ancilla sent back was low to a low-high threat assessment. We know that the people who are doing this are robotic in nature, and the other signals from the galaxy are from civilizations within the galaxy. Indexing a specie would be preserving the specie in question. This genocide could be AIs going into rampancy and the creators have no idea of how to deal with it or the three laws of robotics are missing for some reason; furthermore, an older and slightly more advanced race could have gone further but fell for the same problem and on a massive scale to commit mass genocide. To stop the AIs wouldn't be the problem, but how many are there. This ... cycle of death and destruction every fifty thousand years have taken three centries on the low end, and seven hundred years on a high end." said Offensive with a hint of abhorrence towards who or what is doing this before continuing. "Reclaimers, this galaxy is cleansed of all life, we can do something about, and we will have a high success rate ."

"Margaret, did you agree to this"

"Yeah, we did," answered Margaret.

"Chief?"

John snapped out of his thoughts about Cortana and answered Fred's, "Yeah, we should go to secure Forerunner artifacts, tech, and weapons. HIGHCOM will forgive for our absence if the gift is big enough."

"We are planning on building a Fortress class-Super Heavy Battleship/ Mobile Command ship for you reclaimers to host the meeting with the galaxy's species, rapid repair station, and the ship where we will index every species of the said galaxy," replied Offensive.

"Yeah I think Lord Hood is going to love his new Forerunner made Super Heavy Battleship." joked Kelly with a bit of jolly in her voice.

"When do we leave the Forerunner's planet?" asked Linda.

"That's the thing we're not on a planet, the Capital, or Maethrillian is a space station," said Victor.

"Oh okay how big is Maethrillian, and long will it take for us to get to the galaxy."

Offensive answered Linda's question, "Maethrillian takes on the shape of an egg with ten platforms making up the shape, and at one hundred thousand kilometers in diameter and one hundred fifty thousand kilometers in height. When Maethrillian is open the station's height grows to one hundred fifty-two thousand kilometers in height. The galaxy is two months away reclaimers."

Linda was about to ask Offensive another question when a voice rang over unseen speakers, "Maethrillian's platforms are now closing, preparing for slipstream transit, approximately 3 hours until transit, repeat 3 hours until transit." said a very feminine voice.

"Who was that?" asked Kelly.

"That was 609 Helix Sole. She will be our shipbuilder and the pilot of Maethrillian," answered Offensive.

"How long will it take to index every species in the galaxy?"

"It will take up to a year in Earth days to three years, it only takes longer on the species biology."

The room fell silent for a few seconds only to be broken by Offensive.

"Is that all of your questions reclaimers?"

"Yes, shouldn't we tell HIGHCOM that both Blue and Black teams are on a mission to recover high-value Forerunner artifacts, and tech?" asked Fred to Offensive and Black team.

"We have that already covered, Sir. Static has already deployed an ONI encrypted signal stating the directive and the protocol that goes with, and that both Black and Blue teams are trying to secure a lot of Forerunner tech and artifacts," answered Margaret.

"If that's all I should be returning to my post. Have a wonderful day reclaimers," said Static with golden shimmering rings forming around his frame and disappearing seconds later.

"Reclaimers, one part of this endeavor is that I would upgrade your armor and augmentations. Let me move all of you to a nearby medical facility for the procedure," said Offensive.

The two teams agreed to the procedures and armor upgrades. They arrive at the medical facility and Offensive guided them to the stasis pods for the process of upgrading the Spartans' augmentations. The Spartans proceeded to remove their armor and undersuit, and put on specially made undersuits that would expand to the wearer's body by Offensive's disembodied voice over unseen speakers. He then introduced the Huragok that would oversee the process and make sure that everything is well. Kelly asked for the time frame of the procedure; one week was the answer and they were getting light augmentations of improving their own augmentation. Both teams were ready to get in when Offensive called out to John to go to a portal that appeared on the far side wall of the stasis pod room. John asks if this is about Cortana before stepping in as he says yes. John stepped into the portal to find a team of huragoks working on a two meter long blue glowing cylinder with countless wires connect to it. He presumes was Cortana was in the cylinder

"Reclaimer, I'll be quick with my assessment of your ancilla, it is not looking good for your ancilla. She has bathed in the Domain's abyss for some time now, we are actively trying to remove the poor souls the ancilla came across."

"Poor souls?"

"The Composer digitize the victims and turn them into the horrible creatures, Prometheans. The Didact exclusively used the Composer on humans in the now and past. To get composed by the weapon is known as seen at first hand to be very painful and the victims are actively tortured after being completely composed. The ancilla's core systems were exposed to the souls of the abyss, and we discovered a lot of souls attached to the ancilla's processing unit." stated Offensive with a bit of disgust of composing the poor souls and torturing them to no end.

"Will she be okay?" asked John now almost scared for Cortana, knowing that she might not be okay, and maybe won't be herself.

"Fixing her rampancy is the easy part, we can fix it in a couple of days. The real problem is the composed humans attaching themselves to her and cause logical failures. The composed are loading her processing unit with massive audio files of despair and pain. We must remove the composed before we can help her with the rampancy."

"Thanks, Bias." said John before continuing, "Can you give me a more detailed examination of the galaxy?"

"The galaxy has gone through multiple extinction level events that date back one hundred fifty thousand years ago when the Forerunner Lifeworkers and researchers were the first one to find the galaxy in the middle of a galactic 'war' that we later would be known by The Librarian and Chant-To-Green as a genocide by possibly rampant AIs doing this. the only thing that is disturbing is the cycle of genocide every fifty thousand years it's like... they are being consumed and harvested! Fortunately, it's not the Flood, if it was we wouldn't have anything from the galaxy."

"Why fifty thousand years for this extinction event?"

"We know only so little, but I know fifty thousand years is not enough for a civilization of a high tech tier 2, or a tier 1, even a tier zero to rise to power. This would be having the covenant attack your government when they were going to the stars. We put the UNSC into this genocide scenario, and it would put you near the tail end of the genocide. A good fifty years before the event would take place again."

"What are the tech tiers?"

"Tech tier 2 is interstellar species like the UNSC and Covenant pre-war and post. Accurate slipspace jumps, interstellar communications, portable applications of energy manipulation. Tech tier one is a World Builder species with the power to manipulate gravitational forces, fully sentient AIs, fabricate super-dense materials, super-accurate slipspace jumps, create life, and create worlds. Tech tier zero has no examples but think of it as a god-like species.

John raised a brow at the last tech tier 'God-like species. Oh great' said John, "How do we know it's not an actual tech tier zero species?"

"A transsentient species would easily dominate the whole galaxy, and even if such a species would, then why are they taking centuries to kill off the other races in a cycle of genocide, and it happens every time on the dot no miss steps. This is not a fight between two powers it's deliberately killing off all life in the galaxy."

"Thank you, Bias, I should be heading back now."

"Your welcome reclaimer, the portal to the medical facility is still open."

On that note John left to return to the stasis pods for his lite augmentations for the whole week, and possible updates to their armor and weapons,'Hopefully what Offensive Bias said is true or this is going to be a long leave of absence' thought John as he got into the stasis pod and was quickly put under from the gas that flooded the pod.

 **Mass Effect Galaxy**

A woman that is the very model of what it is to be a hero is now caught with her heart in her mouth, scared for a close friend. This woman is the first human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel and her Council, Destroyer of Sovereign, Vanquisher of the Collector menace; this woman's name is Commander Xavierra Sophia Shepard. Shepard took a deep breath before entering Ashley's hospital room, after getting Dr. Chakaws to rejoin the Normandy for one last rodeo. Shepard now entering Ashley's room walks up to her bed and regaining her composure before speaking, "You got pretty banged up out there Williams, had me worried." said Shepard with a fake smile 'Let it not be another one' thought Shepard before speaking again, "I just wanted to check in on you, see how you're doing. Despite all this, it's good to see you again." said Shepard pausing when a light brown Human in all white with a red stripe running down his right arm entered without a word she turns her head to look at the doctor then back at Ashley, "Ash get some rest ... okay. I'll come by when you're feeling better." said Shepard now asking the doctor a question, "Doc if you need anything doc let me know." he shakes his head in acknowledgment to Shepards's question. "Okay Ash, take care." said Shepard straightening up into a more confident stance, "I have a war to win and Reapers to kill." said Shepard now turning to leave, "Wish me luck."

 _A/N: Now that's all of Chapter one I hope people like it and follow it._ _ **IF THERE ARE ANY PROBLEMS WITH MY SPELLING, USAGE OF COMMAS (P.S. I HATE USING THEM), OR QUOTATIONS PLEASE BE CIVIL AND CRITICAL ON YOUR ISSUES YOU BRING UP. I WILL IGNORE OR BLOCK THE TOXIC, CRUMMY, AND UNACCEPTABLE NATURE OF ANY READERS THAT ONLY INSULT ME AND MY WORK. IM DOING THIS FOR FUN, A HOBBY, NOT THE APPROVAL OF OTHERS. IF YOU LIKE IT GREAT, IF NOT OH WELL.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Halo X Mass Effect Crossover

Operation Noah

Chapter 2: R&R&D

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass Effect. All rights to both game series are owned by 343 Industries/ Microsoft, and EA/ BioWare respectively.

"They're a bunch of self-concerned jackasses, Shepard," exclaimed Udina frustrated with the Council's lack of doing anything productive, AGAIN! "We may have a spot on the Council but Humanity will always be second rate," stated Udina. "How could they be so blind?" asked Shepard just as pissed off that the Council once again has it's thumb up its ass in the head in the sand. "They're scared. They are just looking out for themselves, divide and goddamn conquer."

Both Shepard turned towards the now opening to see Councilor Spartarus walking in, "Our people are scared and we are looking out for them the best way we know how." Sparatrus continues to walk into Udina's office and greets both the councilor and the spectre. "Commander. I can't give you what you need, but I can tell how to get it," stated Sparatrus. "I'm listening."

"Primarch Fedorian has called a war summit, but we have lost contact with him when the Reapers hit Palaven. These meetings will not proceed without him. The Normandy is of the few ships that can extract Primach Fedorian undetected." stated Sparatrus with a bit of a nervousness in the flexing of his mandibles. Shepard noticed the mandibles twitch 'Hopeful it's not terrible for the turians, we will need the strongest navy' thought Shepard. She was really getting used to reading turians now, with all the help she gets from teasing of Garrus to boot.

"So far you've only explained how I can help you," said Shepard still pissed for getting nothing at all to help with the war from the Council.

"The leaders of the summit will be the ones deciding our future, the fate of our fleets, where they fight, and with whom. A grateful Primarch would be a tremendous help and ally in your bid to unite us."

'OH MY FUCKING GOD politics again! Fucking Christ, WHY CANT I ESCAPE YOU!' said Shepard shaking her head at this little deal with the Councilor.

"We're at war and you want me to play politician," said Shepard in a suppressed yell, trying to keep her cool.

"If it gets you what you need, what does it matter."

Shepard just scoffs off the councilor's statement and walks with him to the other side of the room, "Our latest intelligence says that the Primarch was moved to a base on Palaven's largest moon Menae. I've done all I can to help the rest is up to you."

'sigh. Well at least I get some type of turian help.' said Shepard thinking to herself.

Sparatrus was about to leave when he remembers to tell Shepard that she is reinstated as a spectre, and would have access to resources.

 **One week later**

"Shepard. Damned if you aren't a sight for sore eyes," stated Admiral Anderson happy to see Shepard.

"Good to see you to sir," said Shepard formally addressing the Admiral and Father-like figure of her life.

"Sir? I may have reinstated you but that doesn't mean go all formal on me," stated Anderson in a half smile, half smirk look.

"That's more like," said Anderson in a smile. "Looks like you didn't waste any time getting to work. I can only imagine what would happen to those kids if they fallen into Cerberus hands," said Anderson with a visible frown.

"They're definitely eager to help."

"These students are some of the best humanity has to offer and we're throwing them into battle. Goddamnit I hate this war," said Anderson dripping in disgust of children in war. "Hackett didn't mention in his report..."

"Kaylee Sanders is safe," said Shepard knowing what he was going to ask. 'I didn't know you were married Anderson?' said Shepard thinking to herself.

"She's with the recruits."

"Thanks, Shepard. When I heard about the attack," said Anderson a bit relieved of her safety, but still wondered. Taking a deep breath before continuing," Well I have already lost a lot of friends."

"She asked me to tell you to stay alive."

' _Chuckles'_ ," Did she now?" asked Anderson joking smile at the underlining meaning. "Shepard, that might be the first good news I've heard this week, Anderson out," said Anderson before leaving.

Shepard left soon after Anderson's dismissal started to head back to the CIC to thank Traynor. Now arriving at the security checkpoint,' Wow, no banter between you two,' said Shepard thinking to herself about her two talkative security guards. Now in the CIC she walks up to Traynor, "Traynor."

"Commander, I just received word that everybody from Grissom Academy has arrived safely."

"We wouldn't have known about them if you hadn't picked up the distress signal. Nice work"

"Thanks. You have a message from Admiral Hackett Commander."

Shepard was going to go down shuttle bay, have a heart to heart to Cortez, but Admiral Hackett comes first.

From: Admiral Hackett

To: Commander Shepard

 _A small but weird develop has occurred near the Perseus Arm. Something eighty light-_ years into the void of intergalactic space is giving off high-intensity energy waves. _Scientists and analysts do not know what it is, but given our current situation they theorize that the signal could be the device that indoctrinates the galaxy through the Reapers, or it's Harbinger along with many others theories. There is nothing we can do about it at this time, but it's good to know where your enemy is, Hackett out._

'Bastard, makes my life a living hell and he's in dark space sitting back eating GODDAMNpopcorn watching us survive his goddamn onslaught of space zombies,' said Shepard angrily at the screen. 'Hopefully, they don't take anything out of Sun Tzu's book' said Shepard remembering a quote from him _,' If you are near the enemy, make him believe you are far from him. If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.'_

Now leaving to go talk to Cortez about his husband,'The last thing we need is the Reapers to develop an actual strategy.'

 **Same time on Maethrillian/ The Capital**

The stasis pods slowly begin to open to reveal eight super soldiers slowly starting to regain consciousness of being under for a whole week. The Spartans start to move and make an effort to stand upright but to their surprise no disorientating effect of being under for so long. After a good minute all the Spartans are up and a bit hungry. Offensive Bias' disembodied voice was one of the people to greet them and the huragok assigned to their care," Reclaimers you have awaken. Floats Too Low has informed me that the procedures are a major success," stated Offensive.

"One thing, why do I have both of my eyes," asked Margaret on not having her cybernetic eye anymore.

"We repaired your eye for the augmentations that you would receive reclaimer," said Bias answering her question.

"Give us a shakedown," said John.

"Of course reclaimer. First, we had to fix a lot of the injuries you had in battles. Pinched nerves and blood vessels, minor rib fractures, missing eye, primitive plasma burns, scaring of early augmentations, and many others."

"Long list," stated Linda knowing at she was the one with all of the plasma burns.

"The heaviest augmentations were done on your bones with a more advanced carbide ceramic. Your height was altered to be more intimidating, capable of wearing your new armor, and carrying more of the new weapons with ease."

"Muscle tissue density was increased by ninety percent, your eyes can see for seven to ten miles, see in the dark, and more capable of seeing invisible targets. Your nerve system was increased by two hundred percent," answered Bias.

The Spartans were getting into feeling around their new augmentations and incredible height of eight feet five inches being the tallest Spartan (John), and everyone else around eight feet four inches tall. The Spartans are fully out of the pods and stretching their bodies until one of the Spartans starts to... growl?

"Oh uh lunch anyone?" asked Otto. Everyone agreed with Otto.

"Please this way reclaimers," said Bias opening a teleporter to a restaurant on Maethrillian. They come out of the other side and are greeted with an open view of an ocean. Around the Spartans are white-clothed tables that are organized around the room and lining the wall with the ocean view. There was cutlery, fancy animal-shaped napkin, and fancy glasses for each plate. The chairs were a pale brown-golden cushion chairs, walls painted pure white with golden tan curtains, and checkered pure white and golden tan ceiling.

 _'Whistles'_ , "Fancy place," said Kelly looking around at the fancy restaurant that is surprisingly human?"Great view, might take a dip. Want to race after lunch John?" asked Kelly jokingly.

"Maybe, you are the fastest Spartan on land, but at sea? I don't know if you be able to keep up," said John answering jokingly back and getting some chuckles from everyone.

"Now there's the competitive side of John we all know," stated Fred.

Everyone proceeds to take their seats all over the ocean view sitting area two by two. "Offensive, I take it that you have plenty of human food rations and otherwise?" asked Fred now thinking on the possible food problem.

"Of course, we have the food products of the whole reclaimer area of space, and knowledge of how to raise them and grow them, and how to cook to the highest of standards reclaimer," said Offensive answering the question.

"No more rations, good change of pace," said Linda.

Offensive then opened little slits on the table to reveal a menu. Offensive explains the menu is a list of different types of cultural food like American, Italian, Asian, Latin, and etc. John and Kelly ordered some seafood of grilled salmon, steamed crab legs, coconut boiled clams, and steamed lobster with seared mushrooms. Linda and Fred ordered an American made Chicago deep dish meat-lovers pizza. Otto and Margaret both ordered Italian, but Margaret ordered chicken fettuccine alfredo, and Otto ordered a large bowl of spaghetti & meatballs. Roma and Victor both ordered double-stack cheeseburgers with fries.

Both teams of Spartans were done in minutes and ready to do a daily work out to test their new augmentations in many different ways. Margaret ordered Black team into a one hundred mile run in ten minutes or no dinner tonight. Blue team went down to the beach to do a ten thousand yard breaststroke race. Fred and Linda were going to monitor who won the race and asked offensive if the suites are waterproof. Of course, they were and they would be getting new ones designed for them and their later that day. John and Kelly were ready to start the race and with a signal from Offensive the race started and Kelly was off to an early lead. She was in the lead for the major part of the race, but the nearing the end John caught up with her and they were in a head-to-head race to the beach.

"Who do you think will win," asked Fred to Linda on the race between Kelly and John.

"John," responded Linda with swiftness.

"You sure? Cause I'm pretty sure that Kelly is going to win."

"Want to bet?" question Linda with a smirk already knowing the

"I'll leave that to the marines," Fred replied now see them going head-to-head.

Kelly and John continued there head-to-head race to the very end. The race was close, almost a draw but John won only by the tiniest of margins.

"Best two out of three?" stated Kelly asking for redemption for her loss.

"I would like to see our maximum strength without our suites," said Fred not willing to see them race again.

"Yeah, Offensive. Does this station have a weight room, gym," questioned Linda thinking on how many pull-ups she can do now without being interrupted by active duty and war.

"Of course reclaimer," Offensive replied to her question through a local sentinel in the area.

"Please go through and see if the gym will accommodate you to your liking," said Offensive heading through a teleporter, and Blue team soon followed him through. They were greeted to a massive room full of different machines and plenty of space for free lift area.

"Wow. Did Margaret tell you about our weight rooms?" asked Kelly looking to dry off to only find she was already dry and no sand on the bottom of her suite.

"Yes, she did reclaimer. It was in our talks with the warrior of Black team leader when they agreed to deal with this annoying tragedy. It is absolutely wonderful that humanity still has the best warriors." replied Offensive.

Blue team started to do a high-intensity weight lifting with five tons of added weight for pull-up crunches, with three sets of one hundred fifty. Three sets of one hundred fifty weighted dips, and pull-ups of three sets of two handed and one handed pull-ups. Bench press was next and had special made bars to support tons of weight (200 tons) for lifting, but the weights were made from hardlight where Offensive could easily increase the weight of it. Blue team started off with forty-five-ton bench press to only find that it was too light to get a proper workout. That was when they saw Black team come out of the teleporter and started there own workout of pushups.

"So, who isn't getting dinner tonight?" questioned Linda remember what Margaret said.

"Luckily no one is going hungry tonight, everyone completed the marathon under ten minutes," said Margaret responding quickly to Linda's question.

The rest of blue just nodded in acknowledgment and continue their workouts respectively. Blue was informed that they can now lift up to one hundred fifty tons of weight by Offensive. Both teams did full body workouts for the next two hours when Offensive asked them to go to the armory and shipyard. Both teams were a bit excited in what upgrades they got to their armor, weapons, and new ships. They walk through a portal to see a pair of Infinity-Class Supercarrier Skeletons, meters above them with Sentinels zooming about putting on pieces of armor on the ships. They could see other ships being made or were already built but they couldn't tell. A monitor came flying down to the teams, "The armory is that way reclaimers," said Helix Sole gesturing to the far end of the shipyard. "The blue highlighted doors is the armory" stated Helix Sole. They continued to walk to the other end of the shipyard to the door as it dematerialized upon approach. They walked in to see eight massive pods that they couldn't see the contents in them (There display cases). Weapons of the UNSC, Covenant, Forerunner, and other weapons that didn't look like modern human weapons on tables to their direct right. The Spartans were gazing upon the weapons when their chain of thought was interrupted by Offensive through a large three-eyed shell of different colors. "Welcome reclaimers. I hope you will enjoy the weapons and armor that I have created for you today," stated Offensive.

"Show us the weapons first," stated John.

"Of course reclaimer. Your government prefers to use projectile-based weapons, so I and Helix Sole redesign the weapons themselves and the fired projectiles. All of your reclaimer government weapons are all now gauss-based weapons and fires titanium-tungsten tipped carbide rounds. Weapons like this one," said Offensive lifting up the MA5D ICWS before continuing, "Weapons like these have a power core to power the electromagnetic coils, coolant for the heating that it will cause."

Offensive handed over the rifle to John and inspected it before continuing, "Fires caseless rounds and has an increased magazine size of sixty-four rounds," said Offensive when he opened up an area in front of them that look like a firing range.

"This might feel lighter than our MA5," said John still inspecting it for a few seconds and then aim down his sight on the targets down on the rifle range. John fires his weapon with little difficulty of emptying the entire clip on multiple targets.

"This weapon is impressive."

With that, both teams started to look at all the UNSC upgraded weapons and asked Offensive of the weapons specs. Linda and Kelly were the first to ask about their respective weapons.

"Tell me about the two shotguns?" asked Kelly inspecting the M90 CAWS.

"That is what you would call the M90 Heavy Assault Close Assault Weapon System. It is a heavier version of your close combat weapons of twenty-five tungsten pellets in non-electromagnetic shells, carries fifteen shells in its under barrel. The next one, M45, is the more tactical and carries ten shells in the under barrel.," responded Offensive now turn to Fred examining the Battle Rifle and DMR."That weapon like all of the others have the same components, systems, same or lighter frame, and extended magazine."

"Both variants of your sniper rifles are mostly the same with the exception of tungsten carbide rounds. Both are still anti-material rifles, but this rifle," stated Offensive seeing Linda inspecting the sniper rifles of the SRS-99-series five sniper and the M99 old gauss-based sniper of the early covenant war. "Is more in line with anti-infantry and anti-vehicle with it's larger tungsten rounds."

"Reclaimer, I would recommend to put it on a stabilizing bipod to fire it," said Offensive to Linda as she aimed down the sights of the M99 Sniper rifle.

"No need," replied Kelly firing the massive rifle with a big kaboom on the impact of the target.

"Yeah, a bit heavy to be carried around in serious engagements."

Offensive went on to state the specs of the other UNSC weapons, and with both teams testing them. Offensive continued to tell both teams about the weapons before them.

The standard assault rifle MA5D made into the MA5GD ICWS assault rifle being a gauss based weapon with a very powerful power core and capacitors to keep up the continuous firing of the weapon for a whole two mags of ammunition. The weapon has an advanced cooling system for the barrel, coils, and the power itself. The rounds fired from the rifle is a caseless titanium-tungsten carbide round of 7.62 by 51 millimeters AP rounds (Armor-Piercing) and a mag size of sixty-four rounds total. Has a smart-link system to the upgraded Mjolnir armor systems.

The standard battle rifle BR85 heavy barrel service rifle is the BR85 GHBSR battle rifle in gauss-based weapon system with its own power core and capacitors. Fires in a burst fire mode, and fires 9.5 by 40-millimeter rounds of HP-SAP (High-Powered Semi-Armor-Piercing) rounds and has an extended mag size to forty-five rounds in a magazine.

The newly made M395 DMR is now based on Gauss technology and fires titanium-tungsten carbide 7.62 by 51 millimeter AP (Armor-Piercing) rounds with an extended mag size of twenty rounds each. Its barrel is completely covered for the exception to the muzzle and can be silenced and have a sniper like a scope.

The Magnum or the M6H PDWS was a bit difficult for Offensive and Sole to upgrade to Gauss-based technology for the magnum's small size, so it had to be sized up to fit the power core, coolant system, and electromagnetic coils. They were successful in their attempt to fit the systems in the magnum. The M6H PDWS now fires 12.7 by 40-millimeter SAP-HE (Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Explosive) rounds in an extended mag of ten rounds each.

The railgun was the easiest weapon to upgrade to Forerunner grade gauss-based weapons for being already a railgun. The railgun is made into the Heavy Anti-Vehicle/Infantry Asymmetrical Recoiless Carbine 920 with a power core replacement, coolant system, and better capacitors. The Railgun now have a top loaded magazine of three round tungsten harden 16 by 65 millimeter HE (High-Explosive) rounds.

The two shotguns are the M45D Tactical Shotgun and the M45E Heavy Tactical Shotgun are both made to incorporated Forerunner gauss technology. The M45D is upgraded to fire 12 gauge shells with a fifteen-count tungsten pellets in non-electromagnetic and high heat resistant plastic shells. The M45E is made into a Heavy Tactical Shotgun for its custom-made shells and carries twenty shells with twenty-five pellet shells in it's under barrel and has non-electromagnetic, high heat resistant plastic shells.

Both sniper rifles were also quite easy to upgrade to Forerunner grade gauss based technology, but the M99 Stanchion was already a gauss rifle so Helix upgraded its coolant system, replaced the battery with a power core, specially made ammunition, and upgraded to a rifle of anti-infantry/ vehicle. The SRS 99-series-5 Anti-material has the same features as the Stanchion, but not it's anti-vehicle application. The M99 Stanchion fires ten rounds of harden tungsten 20 by 119-millimeter AP-HEI bullets. It's lesser cousin SRS 99 fires 14.5 by 114-millimeter rounds in an extended magazine of eight rounds each.

The submachine, M20 PDW, had to have an entire remake of the weapon to fit the gauss-based technology that Offensive and Helix wanted to fit into the weapon but had to make the weapon a box like weapon with a bullpup design and a top-mounted magazine (Looks like the P-90). The remade M20 PDW now fires one hundred rounds 6 by 28-millimeter titanium-tungsten carbide bullets.

The M739 LMG is now upgraded to gauss technology and carries one hundred rounds. The LMG can fire magnitude of varies bullets of titanium-tungsten core AP rounds, titanium-tungsten carbide HEI-AP (High-Explosive-Incendiary Armor-Piercing) rounds, and tungsten HV-AP (High-Velocity Armor-Piercing) rounds of 7.62 by 51-millimeter bullets.

The M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle or Spartan Laser has been higher upgraded and even had some of its weight shaved off. The Spartan laser now sports a power core instead of its battery. It can also fire more shots and it is technical have a unlimited ammo for only focusing the power from the core onto diamonds with every little lose of the diamonds.

The M57-PAW Rocket Launcher has an upgraded payload and the explosives are encased in tungsten of the 60 by 157-millimeter HV-HEIMP (A/N: Don't know what the _'MP'_ in HEMP stands for, but here's my guess for this weapon _'High-Explosive-Incendiary-Multi-Purpose'_ ) dumbfire and lock-on twin rocket. The rocket launcher has a fast lock-on firing mode.

The MLRS-1 Hydra Launcher has an upgraded payload and better tracking for locked-on targets. Every little has changed of the weapon's purpose outside of its payload and extended magazine of eight total gyro rockets.

The M247H Heavy Machine Gun is now firing titanium-tungsten carbide rounds of 12.7 by 99-millimeter HVIHE-AP bullets. The heavy machine gun no longer needs a belt-feed backpack, but a box feed ammunition of three hundred rounds, and an extra large coolant system for keeping the weapon cool. The HMG can also fire the same rounds and much larger rounds than it's LMG counterpart.

The M9 HE-Dual Purpose Anti-Personal Frag Grenade has upgraded explosives and is filled with tungsten filaments

Offensive continued with the covenant, Forerunner, and the laser-based weapons of UNSC design. Covenant weapons have upgraded power cores and ammunition of the plasma rifles (Storm, Repeater, and type-25), the ammunition for the needler and needle rifle have upgraded special built crystalline shard are thinner, can carry and fire more shards, and has better tracking. The radioactive materials of Covenant weapons have received gotten upgraded radioactive material to make it more potent. The forerunner uses hardlight ammunition in their weapons, and laser weapons in the UNSC designed weapons of the assault rifle, battle rifle, DMR, sniper, and submachine gun. Helix would have made a laser-based shotgun, but the overheating problems were too much for our expedition.

"Wow. Did you bring back the M247? What does the 'I' for in the Heavy machine gun?" question, Otto.

"That would be High-Velocity-Incendiary-High-Explosive Armor Piercing rounds," replied Offensive.

"No kill like overkill," stated Victor smirking at the pair of UNSC sniper rifles.

"Indeed, but what about our armor?" asked Margaret.

"Of course reclaimer," replied Offensive flying over to the eight cylinders before continuing, "I have highly upgraded your armor to match the level of high ranking warrior-servants, Class 18 combat-skin or what a one Doctor Halsey would call Mark X. We kept the look of your original armor. This combat skin has the most powerful shield a warrior-servant can get, shields can be manipulated into different object and melee weapons of the wearer's design, slipspace storage, upgraded polymerized lithium niobocene for the wearer's reaction time by seven and lifting capacity. Built-in gravity lifts, and compulsion system for evasion and limited sustained flight. The undersuit has a gel-layer for protection from the elements extreme heat, cold, vacuum, any and all bacteria and environmental hazards, and EMP blasts. The crystalline layer has been upgraded to Forerunner standards to carry your AI. Once you reclaimers are synchronized into the combat-skins it can be called upon or removed at will. "

"How many weapons can we store in slipspace?" questioned John before continuing, "Where did you get the name Doctor Halsey from? We didn't tell you anything about her."

"Your ancilla had some memory untouched and uncorrupted by rampancy and the Abyss. The Ancilla had some notes and writes for an ambitious plan for Mjolnir from Doctor Halsey. I and a group huragoks looked the notes over and find it quite easy to inaugurate the upgrades into the Mjolnir armor systems. There was a sidenote for aquatic uses, but the Class 18 combat-skin is already completely sealed and can supply oxygen up to twelve hours."

"And Cortana?"

"The ancilla is up and able, but some chunks of her memory are gone or corrupted beyond recovery, and the huragoks are still removing the composed."

John said nothing just in thought about what he would have to tell her to fill in the gaps in her memory. Offensive asked the reclaimers to remove the medical suites and put on the combat-skin under armor. They complied and put on there new undersuit. Offensive lowered the armor using microgravity lifts to the eye level of the reclaimers and the teams proceeded to put on the armored boots when they were lifted up a foot off the ground and had the chest plating was raised over them and slowly lowered down and locked in placed. Both teams knew what was going on, it was a lot like the S-Deck's spartan equipment station. Knowing this the next armor was assembled on their legs and locked on, followed by the armored gauntlet, gloves, and shoulder plates. Now slowly being let down to their feet after all armor pieces are in place except for the helmet.

"There were a few features that just needed a simple upgrade and that would include, Mag-lock boots, mag-lock for the carried weapons, and upgraded radar & motion system, built in cloaking, and tungsten daggers in the forearms."

Both teams were checking for kinks or uncomfortably tight joints. John and blue team were still wearing there iconic GEN two armor, but black team was sporting something different. Otto was wearing a very bulky and large armor set. His shins were massive and thick, his gauntlets were bulky, and his chest plate was massive with a cylinder like compartment. John noticed this and he knew the armor somewhat, it was Jorge's armor.

"Otto."

"John?"

"Remember to honor him for his fighting spirit and sacrifice, Spartan."

"Spartans never die! They're just missing in action!"

Everybody else spoke up," For her." Everybody was speaking on the defense of their home and how hopeless they were to stop the glassing of their once beautiful homeworld.

Margaret is now wearing a new PATHFINDER-Class Mjolnir armor with a blackout visor. Victor wore a Hunter-class Mjolnir armor with a special feature of having Promethean vision even while aiming down sights. Roma was wearing a COPPERHEAD-Class Mjolnir armor with added ab plating.

Both teams were checking their armor kinks and uncomfortable knots in the undersuit. After they were done checking their armor, Offensive had them go out to the shipyard and to the right of the armory to the vehicle bay to see the redesign of some of the UNSC vehicles. They were greeted by a huge fifty-yard door and bigger interior, but their sights were settled on various range of vehicles in the bay. Helix soon joined them and greeted them, "Welcome reclaimers!" exclaimed Helix with glee.

"I shall be giving what you reclaimers call a 'shakedown' on your vehicles."

Helix started off with the heavy air transportation that the UNSC used, the Condor. Helix told them that the pelican was insufficient for transportation of the upgraded armor it will be carrying, too little armor, little to none offensive capabilities, and carrying capacity of warriors was lacking to say the lease. The Condor is now the mainstay all around transport ship/gunship. The Condor now sports a twin chin-mounted eight barrel GAU/53 tungsten 70-millimeter rounds, with a belly-mounted highly upgraded Spartan laser, spinal mounted 100-millimeter SBHVC/DM tungsten shell gauss turrent. It's carrying capacity is now extended to carry twenty-five personnel. The new additions were an upgraded Slipspace drive core and powerful shields.

Next was the M12 FAV or Warthog with added shields, better cooling systems, slightly better armor, and better engines. The first warthog was the LRV (Light Reconnaissance Vehicle) with a new chain machine gun of six barrels of gauss based technology, firing titanium-tungsten carbide rounds. Right next to it was the M12G1 or Gauss Hog with a better anti-vehicle cannon that almost would qualify for it being a mini-mac. The Rocket Hog was next but this hog as said by helix has all around tracking and lock-on systems. Meaning it can now lock-on anything that moves infantry and vehicles (Air and land) can be targeted without the need to lead the target. The last Warthog was the newest addition to the Hog family, The Sword hog. Like the needler and needle rifle of the infantry, the sword hog could fire the dumbfire crystalline shards out of a specially made chain machine gun to fire the shard (same as LRV).

Helix stated that John Forge had a good idea on making the Grizzly tank the UNSC new MBT. Blue team assumed that she got from Cortana's memory banks. Helix continued to state the capabilities of the newly made M850 and the Scorpion M820 with upped size chassis, 180-millimeter smoothbore twin Gauss cannon while one for the Scorpion, better armor, Shields equipped, chain machine/grenadier turret (must be operated separately), and fires IHE (Incendiary-High-Explosive) tungsten shells. Next to both MBT were DEW (Directed energy weapon) counterpart. These two tanks had its main cannon able to focus and direct energy to a target, much like it's an M6 Spartan laser but bigger.

The next one in line was the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark IX Mantis system, boasting twin eight barrel gauss based machine guns on its right arm, firing tungsten 20-millimeter HE-AP rounds. The mantis had to be upsized due to the size of the Spartans. Carries eight tubes of missiles with HE tungsten shell-missiles. Has an upgraded power core for stronger shields and larger cooling systems. Next to it was it's own Hannibal counter boasting all the same missile pods and DEW machine guns instead of projectiles.

AV-49 VTOL or Wasp was next and also had to go resizing. The wasp was now sporting twin quad gauss based 20-millimeter autocannons firing titanium-tungsten carbide rounds, better shields and cooling system, and tungsten HV twin quad missile launchers. It's Hannibal twin sports the same as weapons and systems outside of the DEW machine guns.

The new upgraded GA-TL1 Longsword with its brand new M9109 tungsten ASW/AC 50 millimeter double-twin wing mounted MLA autocannons, a chin-mounted ten barrel GAU/53 tungsten 70-millimeter MBHRC 360 degree autocannon, carries twenty HV-HEI-AP tungsten shell ASGM-10 missiles, and three SHIVA nuclear missiles. The longsword, of course, had better armor, but it isn't better than the ship grade instead of having much better shields. Unfortunately, the Longsword still doesn't have a slipspace drive. Two extra and upgraded reactor and engine.

YSS-1000 has highly upgraded engines, reactor, shields are equipped, slightly better armor, and a slipspace drive core. Twin chin-mounted GAU/53 MBHRC 70 millimeter tungsten carbide rounds, right-wing mounted M1024 ASW/AC 30 millimeter tungsten HV-AP-HE rounds and two twins belly-mounted ASGM-10 HV-HE tungsten shelled missiles.

The newest bird to the UNSC, The Broadsword, got a few upgrades with a better shield system, a new cooling system for its anti-ship weapons, tungsten rounds and missile shells, better armor, new and better reactors and engines for speed in and out of the atmosphere, and in system only slipspace drive core. It's most intimidating weapon is the new triple eight barrel chin-mounted M1075 ASW/AC 35 millimeter autocannons, and a higher missile carrying capacity of the ST/MMP missile delivery system.

Both teams were awed by the sheer firepower of the new vehicles and had to test them out at once that Helix was done and had the team put into simulators to test the weapons and vehicles on simulated targets. That went on for a couple of hours of testing the weapons and vehicles. To say they were very pleased would be an understatement. The Broadsword performed well above expectations, along with the Condor, Longsword, the sniper rifles, and both MBTs.

Both teams were now complete in the testing of weapons and vehicles, and now back at the vehicle bay. Since they didn't say anything about who will lead, talk to the local leaders, and if the locals are hostile against them. If what Offensive said about the galaxy and their tech tier level then they won't be much of a problem (A/N: This is my fuck up with not doing this earlier on who shall lead. I think you know already).

"That Broadsword will eat through any ship in her way!" said Otto with the excitement of feeling her shake from the firing of her main cannon.

"And it's unimaginably loud. I could hear it through the canopy of my Longsword cockpit," said Margaret stating a mere fact of the matter.

"Yea same here. The Sabre needs tweaking for it's turning speed is too slow. I told Offensive to fix the fins when it's in the atmosphere can't test it in a zero-g environment." said Fred

"All the new toys are great in all, but what happens when we get to this galaxy?" asked Kelly.

Margaret was the one to answer her, "We told him we wouldn't be able to take down a new galactic threat that could destroy all life in the neighboring galaxy. So, the idea was to have two Spartan teams and legions of dumb A.I.s that would control the Promethean Knights, pilots of fighters, bombers, interceptors, and warships. However, we still need someone to be the commander for the ground operations."

Everybody was silent for a few moments until they started to look towards John's direction. He caught on to his fellow Spartans' looks and spoke up on what he thought about it.

"Guess third times the charm when it comes to saving the galaxy, but I'm not going to be the one doing all the talking. Especially if it's politics."

"Yeah the one place that Spartans are not needed," said Kelly.

"And the one place we might find ourselves at if it is early in their war," stated Roma.

"Helix, what is the situation with the warships and their overall readiness?" questioned Margaret a bit ready to hear what she did to do combine the UNSC/ Forerunner made ships.

"Of course reclaimer. The first two ship is your reclaimer government's Infinity-class supercarriers, a Fortress/Infinity class Supercarrier Battleship, and a Domination core seed is ready to build it's ship when it has the resources to build the rest of ship. I have eight of your stealth vessels, the Prowlers, in the last stages on completion. I am in the middle stages on building and completing twenty Autumn-class heavy cruisers, twenty Marathon-class heavy cruisers, ten Valiant-class super heavy cruisers, five Punic-class carriers, fifty Strident-class heavy frigates, forty Midlothian-class (modified to be heavy) destroyers, and fifteen Orion-class assault carriers. We would have removed your orbital insertion vehicle of the ships with teleporting to the surface, but it is with caution that we keep all of our options open if teleporting isn't viable to us."

"Domination core seed? what is that?," asked Linda not knowing that it was the ship that attacked Earth not even a month ago.

"The Domination-class super heavy Battleship is the go-to command ship of heavy fleets during my creators' war against the Flood. The core seed of the vessel is to repair and build anything that it will need to stay functional and ready. It comes preprogrammed to build sentinels to gather resources from any source of materials, wither or not its an asteroid, planet, moon, or another ship that is confirmed to be non-friendly. We also remove the need for a cryptum to operate the vessel," stated Helix responding swiftly to the question.

"The other ships, what are the new capabilities of them?" asked Roma.

"The two Infinity-class supercarriers are going to be the semi-heavy hitters of when Offensive Bias' dreadnought, Vengeance of Orbital Life is in play. The Infinity-class will have highly upgraded systems to a high-medium standard for Forerunner vessels. The ships have the state-of-the-art slipspace drives, shield, and super dense titanium armor. The MAC guns on the bow can fire at least three times in a row. It can fire the same type of ammunition of one thousand ton slugs and can travel up to fifteen thousand kilometers per second with a special MAC slug that carries thermite charges (THEI-HV-AP). The missile systems were reconfigured to be all around the top and the belly of the ship. On the top of the ships' spines are Forerunner missile systems for any type of combat, ship-to-ship, ship-to-starfighter, or ship-to-ground. Also on the top section of the ships are plasma torpedo launchers, but mostly on the sides of the vessels. The defensive guns of the ships have been shrunk down to have less of a visible profile and upgraded to gauss-based technology. The weapon systems of the Fortress guns have tungsten HV-HET-AP 70 millimeter rounds, the Mark 2551 Onager can fire a seventeen pound tungsten and depleted uranium slugs at seventy thousand meters per second, AA guns have more potent incendiary rounds of 20 by 102 millimeter HEI-AP tungsten rounds, the guided missile system was thrown out by the where missile systems and replaced by a network of anti-ship pulse lasers, and the addition of anti-air sentinel beams. The nuclear launchers aren't needed and have more room for plasma launchers. The ships still have their complement of ten Strident-class heavy frigates in there underbelly."

"The other ships have the same upgrades with the exception of the carriers and assault carriers have the Infinity-class MAC guns. The Midlothian heavy destroyers are made into a fast attacking destroyer with its twin MAC guns and all other systems removed and replaced with forerunner missile systems for an endless supply of missiles and ten twins (x20) plasma torpedo launchers. The MAC guns on the non-carriers and down have MAC guns that fire around seven thousand eight hundred kilometers per second and can fire smaller slugs that the carriers can fire."

"Great improvements," said Linda.

"Now on to the Fortress/Infinity-class supercarrier battleship will be done in four months if the tech tier analyzes is correct we will be fine, if not we can always finish the ship in time for any major problems. The hybrid ship has eight bow MAC guns, two top-mounted retractable super MACs that have the muzzle velocity of twenty-two thousand kilometers per second, a belly-mounted heavy ion cannon, large hanger the assault carriers and any down in size, thousands of missile pods from both Reclaimer government and forerunner missiles. Hundreds of Gauss, laser, and sentinel-based ship-to-ship guns alongside ship-to-starfighter, and ship-to-ground guns. Plasma torpedo launchers number in the hundreds. The vessel itself will be one hundred kilometers long, twenty kilometers wide, and thirteen kilometers tall; furthermore, alongside said ships I had to do some resizing."

"The Strident-class heavy frigates of being 585 meters in length, 130 meters in width, and 120 meters in height. The Infinity-class supercarrier is now 6 kilometers long, 840 meters in width, and 1,050 meters in height. The Autumn-class heavy cruiser is now 1,440 meters long, 392 meters wide, and 440 meters tall. The Marathon-class heavy cruiser is now 1,200 meters long, 300 meters wide, and 500 meters tall. The Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser is now 1,530 meters long, 383 meters wide, and 510 meters tall. The new Midlothian-class heavy destroyer is 700 meters long, 300 meters wide, and 275 meters tall. The Punic-class carriers are now 4,200 meters long, 812 meters tall, and 653 meters wide. The Orion assault carrier is now 2,240 meters long, 620 meters wide, and 671 meters tall."

"Thank you, Helix. That will be all," said John pleased with what he heard and what they will be getting for their services.

With that Helix left to continue her work while John goes to see Cortana and the rest of the teams continue on with the testing of already completed weapons and vehicles. Cortana was not very well at all, but that was only with her need to fill in her missing memories that have been destroyed on the Mantle's Approach. John took his time with Cortana filling her in on past, recent, and their current mission on hand. Cortana was intrigued by the idea of going to another galaxy but was also worried about the UNSC track record of first contact with alien species. It would take some convincing that John agreed to it, but getting forerunner built ships and tech would be a great addition to the UNSC Navy, the rewards outweighed the risks. Cortana would stay with the surrounding huragoks for the next two days for the composed in her still in her systems and turn her into a Metarch-class ancilla and make four other Metarch-class ancillas. John was done with informing Cortana of her missing memories and returned to blue team in the Hardlight firing range testing the new weapons and he in short order joined them. This lasted till they tested all of their weapons and had Offensive build some of the covenant weapons with more comfortable stocks. Tested the shields of the vehicles and was pleased to know that they were all very sturdy and tough to penetrate with it taken three quarters of a charged Spartan Laser to get past the shields, another four shots to get past the armor, and three more to destroy the vehicles on the ground and more for aerial vehicles.

Both teams were done with the rest of the day testing the vehicles and weapons for their liking. They went to the weight room to work out and on the orders John to workout till 9:30 o'clock and after they were done head to the restaurant for dinner, and after it was showering, armor off and on their special racks and lights out.

 **One week Before Arrival...**

"Hell of a thing you just pulled off, Commander. Curing the Genophage, I never thought I'd would see the day," stated Admiral Hackett with an ever so slight smile on his face.

"Wrex has agreed to help the turians, Admiral. We should get their full support," said Shepard responding to Hackett's statement.

"I take that leaves the salarians out of the equation?"

"The cost of their support was too high, sir," said Shepard with hidden anger of the Dalatrass crappy way of dealing with things. _'I made a promise to Wrex to find the cure for his people on Virmire so many years ago, and I don't make promises if I cannot keep them'_ said Shepard thinking to herself.

"Well, I'll defer to your judgment on that, Commander. Let's hope we don't need them." _'They'll need us.'_ said Shepard mumbling to herself after Hackett's words.

"There is a recent development, Commander. The high-intensity frequency signal has gotten closer to the Perseus arm and is now within twenty light years away from the galaxy."

Shepard was a bit piqued by the signal and what it was, "What exactly is the signal, Admiral?"

"It is still unknown to us, Commander. The scientist that somehow still have spare time and sensory equipment say that on LADAR they picked up three objects of unknown origins entering and leaving out of nowhere like 'they don't exist'," stated Hackett quoting the last part.

"Sir, What do you mean?"

"As the scientists explain it, they are there then they are not. The three objects just disappear without a trace; however, Hawking radiation would pop up when the objects enter and leave the sensory range, but it would leave shortly after. They have not a clue who or what it is, Commander. I'll keep you posted, Shepard. Hackett out."

Shepard now leaving the comms. room and to the war room is greeted by Primarch Victus, "Commander, Urdnot Wrex has begun sending troops to Palaven. You kept your end of the bargain, and now I'll keep mine," said Victus greeting the commander with a firm handshake. "The Turian Hierarchy will stand with humanity against the Reapers."

"I'm glad we could help each other out. It's the only way we're going to defeat the Reapers."

"That much is certain," said Victus now walking with Shepard towards the other side of the room to leave."To that end, several dry-dock ships are ready to help build the Crucible. Garrus will coordinate," stated Victus and giving Garrus an order, and him nodding in approval.

"When the time comes to deploy it, the full measure of our fleet will be there for Earth," stated Victus now looking intently at the hologram of the incomplete crucible."May the Spirits watch over us all."

With Victus now leaving returning to a ship on standby, Garrus has a chance to speak to Shepard," I'll start managing turian support right away, Shepard. You must be exhausted. Mordin dying, it can't be easy."

Shepard was quick to respond," No rest for the wicked"

Garrus chuckled a bit at her response, "If there is one thing that I know about you Shepard is that you are not wicked."

Shepard said nothing, and he continued, "We both know you need a clear head to win this war. There's no room for mistakes here," said Garrus comforting Shepard."You should catch some shut-eye. Besides, I know where you sleep. We'll wake you if anything comes up."

"If you insist," said Shep a bit unhappy that she has pushed into sleeping _'That kid. I don't want to see or think about the poor boy, the most affected by this DAMN WAR!'_ said Shepard angrily thinking to herself while walking. Shepard was in the middle of her thoughts when she had an idea, "You know Garrus it gets a bit cold in my cabin, I could use some warm to get me to sleep faster," said Shepard with a slight smirk and eyeing of Garrus to take the bait.

"I'll send someone to give you blankets and a heater," said Garrus, oblivious to the offer that she gave to him. _'Goddamnit'_ said Shepard mumbling to herself as she pouts and walks off to her cabin to get a good nights sleep.

(A: N- Sorry for the long wait, but I had school, work, club work, possible future projects (Other crossovers ;) ), and multiple revisions of this chapter and story as a whole. I shall continue onward and forward with this story. To the people that believe that this is going to be a Halo wank, just you wait and see there will be trouble afoot for Blue and Black team. If people have some ideas I'm willing to listen.

Unknown Guest: Yes I know that, but trouble will be heading their way (NO SPOILING!). I figured that they were virtually silent no matter what, but I thought they would be more camaraderie with their fellow Spartan 2s. They are brothers and sisters in their eyes, right, family?

Carlosxvx: No they won't. Spartan 2s only share names with fellow Spartans, Dr. Halsey, and Franklin Mendez.


	3. Chapter 3 The Queen and The Void

Halo X Mass Effect Crossover

Operation Noah

Chapter 3: The Queen and The Void

A/N: Greatatthinkingbadatwriting- Two great minds think alike. Unfortunately, I had a different plan for all of it, but you're about 91% accurate. If you have more possible ideas for this series and maybe future crossovers stories. It will be great to PM me the ideas and talk about them.

Max falcon: I have already established that Garrus will be Shepherd's boy toy; however, I am open to other romances that won't fit into this series. So no romances for this series. I have two back-burner stories that are going through consideration of publishing, so those two stories are open to romances.

Destroyer2003: Basically, but as I said, "Were it so easy."- Thel Vadam. I'll be exploring more of Maethrillian in the upcoming chapters.

Now that I addressed all the notable questions and critiques, it is time for the story to continue.

One week before Arrival

"Woah. That's unexpected," Cortana remarked with a bit of surprise.

"Indeed. Very surprising. The second humanity in this galaxy, very much unexpected," said Offensive Bias, "The information on this codex and Eye-From-The-Void's own examination of the galaxy, is giving us is invaluable information to achieve our goal. This genocide has only just begun."

"Yes, it has. This Commander Shepard has an impressive track record, defended Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz from 'Batarian Pirates'," Added Cortana her, voice dripping into a cold regard when she found that the species entire purpose was to enslave the other races and claim "superiority" over the galaxy. "I'm surprised that this humanity joined this "Citadel Council". After all their history of selective enforcement on their rules and laws."

"Yes, that is very problematic. I do not know what my makers would think about the Batarian Hegemony, but I would surmise that they would not let them enslave the species of the galaxy until they imploded or collapsed."

"The UNSC would never let the Batarians enslave their people or other species if they knew about it. The fact that the Council bought the idea that enslaving their species and others is part of their 'Cultural Heritage', is a legitimate reason to enslave the species of the galaxy," stated Cortana with increasing anger. "I'm just surprised that the Citadel Council didn't go to war against the Hegemony, and they would have been at better odds end with Humanity's government, The Systems Alliance."

"Yes they would, but we should return to the topic at hand."

"Yes, of course. Commander Shepard, full name: Xavierra Sophia Shepard, height 6'1", hair color, platinum blonde, eye color cerulean, weight 151 pounds, and born in daughter of Alliance N4 marine Michael Shepard and Hannah Shepard. Both parents are respectively serving aboard different ships and became well respected officers. Both married in their early thirties and conceived one child, that obviously being Commander Xavierra Shepard. Michael Shepard died in the line of duty during a pirate attack. Xavierra enlisted on April 11, 2172 as a Sentinel class marine then progressed to an N7 Paladin when N-training was completed. "Single Handedly" defended the colony Elysium in 2176 from 'Batarian pirates', took part in the Siege of Torfan in 2178, and was promptly promoted to commander shortly after. She was the one that warned the galaxy of the upcoming war for survival against these "Reapers"" said Cortana with a hint of disgust for the Reapers and their similar function to the Flood and how they assimilate organics into abominations.

"Their way of assimilation is disturbingly similar to the Flood; however, the only good out of all this is that their process is far slower than the Flood's organic assimilation."

"Will there be problems with their indoctrination capabilities," questioned Helix.

"That has long since been solved," replied Offensive.

"Explain" Cortana queried, a bit curious about how that he had already known the solution to it.

"The Thanolekgolo were used as combatants in the Forerunner-Flood war, but it failed to get any progress in the war. Many of the warrior-servants wanted to know how to block out or silence their battle hymn. Their battle hymn is very much similar in the way of infrasound and ultrasound waves. These Reapers use the same or similar frequencies by using electromagnetic fields instead of the Thanolekgolo's natural vocal cords. We had some specially made materials infused into the helmets of the warrior-servants."

"Is this material in my Spartans' armor already?"

"It can be within the hour if need be."

"Yes, good. Let us continue." Cortana elaborated.

"She was the one that repealed Saren, his Geth army, and the Reaper capital ship, Sovereign, from taking over the Citadel and executing the Councilors. The reason that the Council didn't retaliate is beyond me."

"That is very strange, yet would align with the Reapers plan to not have its victims be able to militarize right before their attack. Their respective governments didn't think that the attack on their central government and the turning of a Spectre isn't a good reason to go to war with the Geth. After all of that, I do not know what will get them to declare war on the threats that enclose. Hopefully, this pseudo-reclaimer can make peace with them and not make another species extinct."

"We can only hope. She did recently cure the Genophage for the Krogan people."

"Wonderful! It is marvelous that more species did not go extinct. Their history is eerily similar to the Jiralhanae."

"That's a bit of an understatement. They're brutal, savage, warlike, and nuked themselves back into more primitive and archaic times. The Salarians uplifting this species during their Rachni-Council war is understandable, but after they were done with them, they just let the young species run around with actual warships, WMD's, and no culture outside of war. The Krogan rebellions and the Genophage is nothing but the Salarians short-sightedness, and the Asaris lack of foresight on the obvious results of the short-sided decision of uplifting them."

"A very destructive decision that cost them dearly."

"Continuing, she saved the same Council, that for whatever reason, still denied that the ship was indeed a Reaper ship, and labeled it a new Geth Dreadnought. That reasoning of it being a Geth dreadnought just now means that their sizing you up for possible war. There is no reason that the Councilors of that event should even be having a job after the load of shit they pulled."

"..."

"Okay. Okay. Let's move on. She was sent to hunt down the remnant Geth forces. Did they actually believe..."

Cortana was shortly interrupted by Offensive bias' annoyance of being continuously driven off into a tangent,"Ancilla Cortana, lets us please continue with the history of the pseudo-reclaimer."

"Uh... Yeah. Let us continue unabated." Cortona meekly smiled before continuing.

"She was killed in an attack by what was the Reapers' indoctrinated Protheans, the Collectors. Two years later she was resurrected by the Human Supremacist /terrorist organization known as Cerberus. She organized a team to go through the mysterious Omega-4 relay and take down the Collectors and stop them from taking any more colonists. She disappeared for a week and was shortly after found in Systems Alliance custody for unknown reasons."

"Offensive Bias, what is the new threat level of these Reapers?" queried Helix.

"It will really depend on their numbers, power, and level of intelligence possessed by these Ancillas. It took a fleet or two to take down just one Reaper. We have some of the military capabilities of their navy, armed forces, intelligence organizations, and their doctrine of warfare. All the affected governments have had no effective doctrine, weapon, strategy, or a large standing navy and galactic unity for a common threat," replied Offensive Bias.

"Who has the largest standing navy?"

"The Quarian Migrant Fleet has around fifty thousand ships. However, that was after they went to war with the Geth yet again to take back their homeworld by force. Unfortunately, their navy is bad, even by their standards, and more so laughable by ours. The Turian Hierarchy have... or had the most powerful navy and military. They have been getting hammered away since the begin of this war. The Systems Alliance was quickly dealt with in the opening week of the first attacks. Virtually all of this happened in a the span of a week. The Reapers conquered the Batarian homeworld, human homeworld, and the turian homeworld were under siege within a week of each other."

"That doesn't bode well for us, and yet at the same time it does," stated Cortana.

"How is that so?" asked Helix a bit curious and concerned with the galaxies' current state of readiness for this war, it was very... disturbing.

"We know that their strength is from their blind side attacks with overwhelming force on their victims. If that is disrupted, it could make them adapt, if they can even do that anymore after so many millennia of this cycle, or being dormant can slow them down and buy the species time to fight back. While that is going on, we will be pushing them back."

"It is a sound strategy. Once we arrive we should contact this pseudo-reclaimer and shed some more light on the Reapers capabilities, and their ground forces."

"I'll call up my Spartans." Cortana added.

Shortly after Offensive Bias, Helix Sole, and Cortana were done with their shakedown of the basic information of the neighboring galaxy, and a more in-depth conversation in cyberspace.

Cortana is getting into contact with John, and the rest of Blue team were the first to be contacted. Fred and John were in the middle of a hand to hand training, and Fred is using his knives to attack John. She was going to let them continue till they finished, but that was ten minutes ago.

"Hey boys! I know that both of you are enjoying your hand-to-hand warm-ups, but we have some surprising information on the galaxy at war."

Fred chuckles softly at Cortana's little playful banter, "John and I have been going at it for the past hour!"

"An hour of it being 2 to 1," quipped John.

"Yeah yeah. Give me another hour and it will be 4 to 2."

"Okay boys, play nice. You are needed in the warrior-servant debriefing room for the recent updates," said Cortana before they continued into their matchup.

"Just step through," said Cortana as she gestured towards an open portal and had both Spartans walkthrough.

Cortana continued to search for her Spartans and found herself in the forest area of The Capital. The forest was in all intended purposes astonishing beautiful, with its unending Pine trees and Redwood trees. The forest wasn't at all artificial, it was natural and had its own ecosystem, water system to have it rain and supply fresh water from recycled wastewater to the medium-sized freshwater lakes and ponds. The animals were even stranger. There were wolves, elk, deer, rabbits, maybe some mice, insects of many purposes to the ecosystem, and maybe a bear in there; however, the animals were not that of Earth or any of her colonies, they were all very different, but oddly familiar. Cortana could see that Victor and Linda were sharing the same area of the forest, but they were in the middle of assassinating a target and gathering intel on enemy movements. It was a way of training a sniper to do assassination tactics, Black Ops, and ONI's infamous Head-Hunters. The training was to assassinate a stated target, gather the intel the target had on hand on of 'Covenant' movements, ship designs, the location of Human planets, and vacate the area. The only problem is the fact that Victor was the counter sniper to defend the target and keep the intel safe. Linda already successfully assassinated the target and was moving in on the building holding the intel, but Victor had other plans. Victor destroyed a wall of the prefab military building where the intel was being held, grabbed the intel and ran. Now it was a game of Hunting-The-Hunter. It has been two hours of Linda hunting down Victor and getting the intel off of him.

"Hey Linda, is this a bad timing?" whispered Cortana to Linda.

Linda said nothing, but did give 'shh' sound to Cortana and continued aim down sights to an unknown target. Cortana simply stood there until she took the shot and quickly broke into a sprit in the direction of her shot. A good seven miles later, Cortana and Linda come across Victor's 'dead' body and subsequently took the intel and ran for a couple miles and was in an opening to digital versions of UNSC personnel and handed off the briefcase of intel to the surrounding crew. Linda, of course, was successful in her training exercise and successfully completed the mission in under twelve hours.

"Is now a good time?" questioned Cortana with a bit of sass for making her wait for so long.

"Yes, Cortana. It's a good time now," Linda answered with just as much sass back.

"We have updates from The-Eye-From-The-Void on the situation in the upcoming galaxy. Go through and you will be greeted by the rest that is there."

"What about Victor?"

"He'll be there in a little bit. Nice shot by the way. The complement is of Victor."

With that statement, she steps through the portal to join the rest of the teams. While Cortana would continue to search for the rest of both Spartans teams for debriefing. She hopes what is being said by Void isn't true, that the Reapers assimilate their victims into their consciousness. They reminded her of the damn Flood that Offensive spoke of earlier when she had successfully recovered completely. She was told of her time with the Gravemind. She didn't want to remember her time with that abomination. She pushes this to the side and focus on the mission ahead Kill these abominations, save the day and get out. That is what she hopes to do, but nothing goes as planned.

Warrior-Servant Debriefing room

All of the Spartans arrive at the debriefing room and was seated around a large round table with a holoprojector of the galaxy the Spartans are going to. Offensive Bias gave out the summary of the galaxy's history and the current state of affairs. He then went in-depth about the Reapers and some of their capabilities. The Spartan was a bit disturbed by the mention of indoctrination of how it is transmitted from the ships ( A: N maybe their ground forces can do it too, but I don't know) to their victims. The Spartans asked if this will be a problem and were answered with the information of the Forerunner Warrior-Servants wanting a way to block out the now Maklegolo species' battle hymn. The Spartans were somewhat impressed by her achievements, but when the Spartans looked at the Alliance they were not as impressed.

"It is a good thing that there is a Humanity in this galaxy. Have them here makes everything for us much easier and convenient," said Margaret with some eased tensions of a second hostile contact of another species.

"And this Humanity is in some type of good relations with the other species of the galaxy, except for the First Contact War," added Cortana. "And that war was fought against the Turian Hierarchy when the Human Systems Alliance was trying to open a Relay, and that is illegal by Citadel law. The war resulted in favor of the Alliance of taking back their colony and the Citadel Council forced the Hierarchy into a ceasefire and the Alliance joining the Citadel as an associated species. That would be a god sent if our first contact war lasted as long as theirs."

"Meaning," asked John a bit curious about Cortana's statement.

"Theirs lasted all of three months, with six hundred twenty-three human casualties and around seven hundred turian casualties. This resulted in the galaxy seeing the humans as aggressive, giving the Alliance public a climate of xenophobia, and resulted in the formation of Terra Firma, and later on Cerberus. Both organizations are pro-human extremist groups with Cerberus being the thorn in the side of the Alliance for being able to take the xenophobia words of Terra Firma into the action of illegal experimentations, terrorist activities, sabotage, and assassinations."

"As of right now Reclaimers, it is believed that Terra Firma was dissolved and rejoined the Alliance for obvious reasons, but Cerberus has started to hinder the efforts of the galaxy to stop the Reapers and they will be seen as a threat and shot on sight," added Offensive Bias.

"And what is the status of the human Armed Forces and Navy?"

"This Humanity is a disappointment and even worse than that, I'm surprised that there wasn't a rebellion for the completely incompetent, inadequate, and horribly inefficient Colonial Defence forces," stated Roma, upset about the warfare tactics of the Systems Alliance."I think they are using the methods of Sun Tzu maxim 'He who defends everything defends nothing'. It is a good way of waging war when you're on the offense, but it's worthless once you're on the defensive side and fall into your own trap. Then these colonies are also poorly defended in the first place and easy targets for anyone attacking them."

Linda was the first to speak up the method of warfare, "They could get away with it if they kept the opponent on their heels, but if they don't they risk heavy losses on their colonies and that can hinder their war efforts."

John interrupted, "Let us focus on the need to form plans against the reapers, both in combat and contingency plans." Everyone nodded in agreement and John continued, "Bring up the galaxy map of the galaxy and its territory Cortana."

Cortana, of course, brought up the galaxy map with all its territory into sectors of Inner and Outer Council space, Systems Alliance space, the Attican Traverse, and the Terminus Systems. She then deployed the areas under attack by the Reaper forces and the names of the star systems and planets of importance to them. The Spartans already knew that the Systems Alliance's Earth already fell along with Khar'san and Taetrus, yet the turian homeworld Palaven was under heavy siege of Reaper forces. Next was the Hegemony and Alliance planets and colonies of the respective species; however, most if not all colonies were gone or under siege. The Batarians received the worst from the Reapers' invasion and virtually all of their territory is basically gone. Council space of the Turians and Asari were in the process of being overrun and some of the other neighboring species of the Drell, Hanar, and Elcor territories.

"What is in the red area here," questioned John.

"That area is the Terminus systems and there is very little information in and out of that area, except for the new Quarian-Geth war is now taking place in their home system," answered Cortana.

"Where will we be arriving in this galaxy and what is the Quarian-Geth war?"

Offensive was the one to speak up and answer John's question, "Yes reclaimer. We will be arriving in their Perseus Veil in one week. The Quarians are the makers of the created race known as the Geth. The Quarians created the Geth around three hundred years ago as cheap labor and the military force. Unfortunately, the Quarians panic when the ancillas asked questions about their purpose and waged war against their lesser ancillas. A war where their Citadel partners ignored their pleads of help; Furthermore, the Citadel Council betrayed everything that they stood for and in what you reclaimers might say,' put salt in the wounds' when they were removed from the Citadel and banned the Quarian people from recolonizing other worlds to rebuild their people."

"So, in other words, this galaxy is plagued by bureaucracy and self-serving politicians," said Cortana, adding to what was behind all of Offensive hidden anger of the Citadel Council's back-stepping of their word, and selective enforcement of their laws and rules.

"The scum of the Earth," added Kelly.

John was just analyzing the map and looking over the map for possible important targets for the Reapers and the targets that are already under siege. The Citadel is now acting as the refugee safe haven for all wartorn planets across the galaxy, and then John spoke up again, "Where is Commander Shepard?"

"She was last seen on the Citadel during an attempted coup d'etat of the Human Councilor Donnel Udina, and was backed by the terrorist organization of Cerberus," answered Cortana.

"Do we know of the Reapers' ship-to-ship abilities, ground forces of both sides, weapons, and movement of large fleets and forces," deadpanned John in a way of it being an order.

"Right to it then. It like it," smirked Cortana before continuing, "They primarily use electromagnetic cannons powered by a 'magical' element, element zero. The cannon can fire liquid alloys of iron, uranium, and tungsten at the fraction of the speed of light and that's there only weapon outside of their defensive pulse lasers systems for anti-capital ship missiles, torpedoes, fighters, and interceptors. They also have unmanned interceptors. Ground forces vary from Husks, Marauders, Cannibals, Brutes, Harvesters, and recently added Ravagers. Husks are assimilated humans, Marauders are turians, Cannibals are Batarians, Brutes are a mix of Krogan and turian, Harvesters are unknown to us, and the Ravagers are the Rachni with the match of thirty-five percent. Their ground force weapons are based on element zero mass accelerator. The weapons fire sand grain sized bullets traveling at high speeds for both forces, but the Galaxy's governments have much more variations of weapons."

"The Reaper ships movements are mostly focused on the Human and Turian space for the most part, with a lot of the associated species and the Asari worlds under siege. Salarian worlds are virtually untouched by the war except for their economy of course."

John was in the middle of thinking over all of the information that he has at the given moment and gave out a plan that could work," The first we need to do is to get into contact with Commander Shepard and get as much information as to what they are planning for the Reapers, Get a chance to speak with the Admirals, General, and the Councilors about their war efforts. The main plan of attack would to free up their war assets, warships, shipping lanes, and ease the pressure on possible soldiers and civvies."

"Where should we attack these Reapers once we are established?" asked Linda.

"Palaven, the Turian homeworld, then the surrounding systems. We are to liberate the entire solar system from the Reapers in ships and armed forces in Operation Bash and Mash."

"I know I call you a caveman a lot, but that doesn't mean you need to embrace it," chuckled Cortana at the Operations name.

John said nothing and continued onward," Operation Sun Dial for Asari territory, Operation Infinite Shining Light for the rest of the galaxy and surround associated species. We will apply WINTER CONTINGENCY to fit these operations along with adopting new protocol for our missions. WINTER CONTINGENCY is the result of Reaper ships and forces flooding a system with overwhelming force and the need for evacuation. HARVEST CONTINGENCY is the result when Reaper forces have successfully assimilated more than ninety percent of the planet's population, and any and all ships are authorized to use WMDs, and heavy orbital bombardment to destroy Reaper forces. Cole Protocol is revised to deny any and all technology of the Forerunner and UNSC technology to be captured by enemy forces and if so, friendly forces. Office of Naval Intelligence Security Protocols are unchanged for first contact. Any question?"

There were none and they continue to figure out a plan to deal with the Reapers and what they might do when they arrive and how they would react to their arrival. Some of that was addressed by the inclusion of WINTER CONTINGENCY and some others were addressed. Kelly brought up the idea that the Reaper could respond to them by speeding up the assimilation of the other species in spite of our efforts to protect them. The idea is a possibility, but the likelihood of the Reapers doing that would mean they would know the motive of the Spartans and Offensive. Then it was the idea that the Systems Alliance was hiding valuable forces and ships from the galactic community. The idea of the Alliance hiding some major forces and ships wasn't too far off when they included that the galaxy was filled with bureaucrats and by the reports of Void, that the galactic community isn't united in any serious way of fighting the Reapers. This was a major surprise to the Spartans to know that they were basically setting themselves up for failure. Then to add insult to injury, the Asari and Salarians are not very active outside of their borders and have the highest risk of being surrounded and cut off from the rest of the galaxy for any aid to repeal any Reaper forces and both were not that good in warfare, especially the Salarians.

Offensive came up with an idea to appease the galactic leaders by freeing up their homeworlds and colonies for the promise of terraforming destroyed worlds and uninhabitable planets. Appeasing the Krogan leader Urdnot Wrex could be easier with Offensive building a special hammer and maybe a shotgun for him. The Spartans had made sure that all of their ships (warships, fighters, interceptors, bombers, and the Promethean Knights) could be independently controlled by smart AIs or dumb AIs as well as being controlled by Offensive Bias. All of the ships can still be piloted by a person and be staffed with a crew, with sentinels and huragoks running the maintenance, loading of ammunition, and pods for the Promethean Knights.

They went on with the Asari's natural ability in their biotics, or telekinetics by the UNSC could prove difficult if large portions of their populace were assimilated would be problematic. Offensive Bias said that they could make there would telekinetics into the suits like the Ur-Didact had in his. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be done for an extra two months into the invasion plan. That had to wait, but the Spartans would push forward with or without it. The Spartans continued on talks on possible invasion plans and ways to work around the galaxy's bureaucrats. John asked if the M510 Mammoth could be redesigned as a artillery or mortar platform along with a overhaul of the AC-220 Vulture. Cortana laughed with glee of John's request and subsequently ran the designs to Helix Sole for improvement. Everything was nicely tuned, but some of it would have to come from Commander Shepard, the Admirals, and Generals on the possible theaters they might be needed in. All of that will have to wait till they arrive and start doing what they do best-waged war.

Mass Effect Galaxy Maskim Xul System

"Yeah, shuttle just arrived. You better get moving, Team Two. See anything, let me know," said a very young and inexperienced krogan soldier over comms.

"Grunt?" asked Shepard, walking out with EDI and James Vega close behind. Shepard was carrying her favorite new shotgun the Venom shotgun from the Salarian Special Tasks Group, along with her M-9 Tempest and the N7 Eagle. Shepard was still a bit tired from here exercise section of working her biotics and making sure she could still hack into most equipment. She was a Paladin when she wasn't a spectre and not part of Cerberus. She still kinda missed her shield, but no matter she shall move forward.

"Shepard!" yelled Grunt a bit surprised and excited to see Shepard, his Battlemaster and giving her a heavy hug while laughing."Heh! Shepard! Heh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"What are you doing here Grunt?" asked Shepard, now rubbing her shoulder.

"I could ask the same question. Didn't those idiots lock you up?"

"They did. Put me in lockdown to keep the Batarians off me. Didn't want problems with the Council when they were preparing for war. But as you know the galaxy went to shit and here we are."

"Heh-ha-ha. Yeah, they got bigger fish to fry now!"

"That's why I'm out here running Aralakh Company. They're tough, think they are invincible. Reckless, but effective."

Shepard chuckles for a second before speaking, "Sounds familiar, Grunt. How did you go from being new and untested to your own command?"

"Ha, wasn't easy. When Wrex put Aralakh Company together, he needed a leader who represented the future of our species. Thanks to you, I completed my Rite of Passage on Tuchanka and became part of Clan Urdnot. I was an equal. And being the strongest, I was chosen to lead this honored company."

"I bet that some Krogan didn't like having a tank-bred krogan leading them?"

"I collected a few scars earning my place her. they respect me."

"You were a pain in the ass, Grunt, but if your krogan are half as good as you, we might make it out of here."

"Heh! Glad you're here to crack some heads, Shepard. Hard to believe this might be Rachni. It seems crazy. The Rachni!" said Grunt chuckling to himself before continuing," A chance to face an old enemy? Impossible to resist!"

"We don't know if the Rachni had anything to do with this. We're here to find the scouts. I didn't see any signs of activity during our approach."

"Agreed. But this place smells wrong. Like a bad wound. Our scans show the tunnels down there lead to a large central point. If we're lucky, it's a nest."

James inquired into the conversation at the mention of nests, "Rachni have nests?"

Grunt doesn't answer James' question, but he gives a toothy grin and laughs. "Aralakh Company move out!" shouted Grunt at his underlings to move, and were quick to respond with hearty roars, and ran down to base camp where the scout camp used to be. "Grab what you need, Shepard. Meet me at the scout camp ahead."

"Sounds good," said Shepard as she walks into the nearby shack for supplies, and finds a spare M-300 Krogan shotgun, a pistol mod, and spare parts that she could sell for credits. She quickly leaves the shack the and headed towards the campsite below.

"What do you think we'll find here, Commander?" quired James a bit nervous, but not scared.

" I don't know, Lieutenant, but keep your weapon handy."

"Always."

Shepard's team continued onwards to the scout campsite into a dangerously unstable shack. Halfway through the shack, the shack collapses into the sinkhole below with Shepard's team getting bruised and disconnected from Aralakh Company. Get back! screamed Grunt at the collapsing shack."Shepard! Still in one piece?" yelled Grunt.

"We're good. Keep in radio contact," yelled Shepard.

"On our way!"

Shepard's team make their way onto what looks like a pathway and a dead Krogan at the end.

"Something up ahead," said EDI pointing out the dead krogan.

"I see it. Grunt got the body of a scout here Been dead a few days now."

"Yeah? If he has his weapon, grab it. He won't be needing it anymore," answered Grunt, as Shepard binds over to grab the krogan's flamethrower.

Shepard, now with a flamethrower in hand uses it to burn a webbing like barrier, blocking her team's entry point. James spoke up on if the blockage was any type of webbing, but it will go unanswered, and Shepard asserting that they should stay frosty. Shepard and team moved further into the dark tunnels and everyone flicks on their lights to see better. James annoyingly breaks the silence," Stay sharp people."

"Agreed. Everybody be ready?" asked Shepard as three little things just scurried across their flashlights.

"Movement, we've got movement."

"Confirmed," answered EDI to James statement and easily picking it up on her motion sensors.

Shepard continues forward into the dark tunnels and burns the closest barrier of webbing in front of her, and she burnt something of an egg or pod sac thing. EDI said something, but Shepard just ignored it and burnt the pods that were in her way when some of them exploded.

"Damn it!" said James with a suppressed yell with getting sprayed by an acidic like substance.

"Careful where you step," said EDI, slowly moving about the acidic puddles.

Shepard continued to burn the pods unabated, but keeping her distance for the acidic to dissolve. Shepard continued deeper into the tunnels burning in webbing and pods in her way She continued up a small slope to be greeted by more pods, webbing, and some metal plates on the wall and cables running across the floor. 'Must be Reaper tech. I knew this place was off. EDI spoke up and only confirmed what Shepard thought, "Note the wires, Shepard, Reaper technology."

"Noted"

Shepard continues to burn pods and webbing alike until she runs out of fuel for her flamethrower. 'Damnit. I was just having fun too.' said Shepard thinking to herself on the loss of her flamethrower. She then spent the rest of her fuel to burn the webbing off an area of the tunnels to see another dead krogan with a flamethrower. ' Must be my lucky day,' said Shepard still thinking to herself. Burning another webbed off area, she comes to an open area with a small cliff to jump down to. Shepard looks around to find a settle low pitch noise and finds an indoctrinated Rachni drone. The drone gives out a terrible hiss and jumps down to the platform below. Shepard's team ready their weapons for combat and Shepard drops her flamethrower for her shotgun and quickly takes cover. EDI and James quickly follow suit with Shepard and takes cover.

"Grunt, we got company!" yelled Shepard as she shot at the mobile shield generator.

"Light'em, Shepard!"

"EDI, Incinerate that Ravager! James cut down the Husks!" yelled Shepard as the Ravager laid down suppressing fire on her.

The team said nothing and did as told, and EDI successfully gaining the attention of the Ravager after her incineration hit it. Shepard delivers a warp right behind EDI's incineration, charges up her shotgun and took aim at the Ravager. After two seconds of charged time, Shepard released the triggered and scored a direct hit and kill the Ravager. Shepard now turns her attention to the husks rushing the position of Lieutenant James and trying to grapple him into melee range. Shepard quickly helps out James by delivering an biotic throw to the nearest husk and gunning down the rest of the husks with her shotgun.

"Well we now know what happened to the Rachni," said James looking at the decaying corpse of the Ravager.

"Agreed," stated EDI.

"Grunt, Rachni presence confirmed. Modified and very dangerous," said Shepard.

"Finally, something to kill! Nothing here yet. Lost a Krogan to a sinkhole. Bad way to go."

"Shepard, more Reaper tech," said James pointing out the tall Reaper-like structures lining the walls of the tunnels.

"The nest has to be close by. The significant amount of Reaper forces indicates we are on the right path," added EDI.

"Agreed," said Shepard as she burns more pods.

Shepard picked up her flamethrower where she once was and jumped across a little gap in the tunnel floor to the other side. Coming across another dead Krogan with a flamethrower and a shotgun next to him, I'll be taking both of those,' said Shepard thinking to herself and picking up the unused flamethrower and mod before continuing onward. She continues to burn more pods and webbing until she is blocked by a Reaper door like barrier.

"A barrier Shepard," said EDI stating the obvious.

"Copy that."

"How are we getting through this?" asked James.

Shepard burns down a webbed off area of the tunnel to see the was the three-pronged object and what the dead Krogan have on hand. "Reaper tech?" asked James.

Shepard does the most sensible thing and shoots the Reaper tech thing until it explodes and sends out a loud ping throughout the cave tunnels.

"It was a locking mechanism," said EDI.

Shepard burns another webbing barrier,'This webbing and pods are really starting to get on my nerves' mumbled Shepard as she and her team heard a loud screech and rumbling from above. Rocks and pebbles start to fall from above and the team wises up and jump out of the area, before being crushed.

"Anyone injured?" asked EDI, as she gets her medi-gel ready for use.

"Looks like we're finding another way out of here. Come on!" said Shepard, getting herself off the ground.

"What was that noise, Shepard. Sounded bad," said Grunt over comms.

"Cave-in. We're alright," responded Shepard as more little creepy crawlers scurried away on the cave's floor.

"Good. Didn't want to dig you out."

"That hurts my feelings, Grunt," said Shepard as she burns more pods.

"Yeah, yeah," said Grunt dismissively.

Shepard pushes onward burning more pods and watching little creepy crawlers until Grunt speaks to her over comms," Shepard, I know what happened to the scouts."

"What you find?"

"They got hit hard. The leader ordered them to carry weapons into the caves. He knew the next team would need help."

Shepard continues to burn pods and webbing alike before continuing, "They died making sure we could make it to the central chamber. Come on!"

Shepard burns her way through the webbing and pods to reach another dead Krogan with a datapad, "Looks like a last message. He's asked that it be delivered to an Asari named Ereba on the Citadel."

"Another hall Shepard," said EDI.

"Expect trouble," replied Shepard, and seconds later are greeted by Reaper forces. Shepard's team quickly rush to cover and start to gun down any husks that come their way.

"James! Frag the generator!" yelled Shepard, "EDI incinerate that Ravager!"

"On it!" said both James and EDI.

James successfully takes down the generator and the few husks that were close enough to be damaged by the grenade. EDI and Shepard use incinerate and warp respectively to take down the ravager, but it's not enough and the Ravager lays down suppressing fire on both EDI and Shepard.

"James! Frag the Ravager!" yelled Shepard taking pod shots at it with her pistol.

"Frag out!" yelled James as he lobs the grenade at the Ravager, and kills it. Shepard quickly follows it up with a biotic throw towards the husks that are still coming her way, and dispatches them with ease; however, the Cannibals were laying on the pressure. Shepard quickly pulls out her shotgun, leaves cover, and charges forward with her shotgun. Shepard charges up her shotgun and release it and kills one of the three remaining Cannibals. She quickly enters cover from the shots from the other Cannibal and orders James to use tech skill carnage on one Cannibal and she uses biotic warp on the other. "Okay, Move up!" ordered Shepard as she justs over her cover and advance to the other side of the cave.

"Advancing," responded EDI.

"Moving up, Commander," replied James.

With Shepard dashing to the other side of the tunnel and quickly sees the generator in the middle of the room and instinctively gets into cover and charges up her shotgun as more Ravagors come out of a small tunnel on the far side of the room. "Stay low! Don't let it get a bead on you!" said Shepard as she takes down one of the Ravagers with her shotgun. With Shepard in the thick of things, she orders James to Frag the Barrier generator and EDI to incinerate the other Ravager, while Shepard will follow it up with a biotic warp. Shepard and EDI overwhelm and take down the ravager, and she gives the order to focus on Cannibals while Shepard deals with the husks. The rest of the Reaper forces are quickly dispatched and Shepard runs to retrieve her flamethrower until Grunt called over comms," We must be getting close Shepard. Some heavy fighting. Tough bastards!"

"Casualties?"

"It's fine. Krogan fight better angry."

Shepard is now making her way towards the other side of the cave and burn more pods,'More of these damn things?' asked Shepard to no one important, but herself as she drops down another little cliff.

"More of these little bastards!" yelled James as he shots the little crawlers as they hatch.

Shepard continues to burn the eggs and pods with little resistance from the hatchlings. The Rachni favor highly toxic environments for breeding, but this atmosphere is breathable," said EDI, pondering on why the Rachni are on this planet in particular.

"These do not look like regular Rachni, EDI," replied James to EDI question of the favored environment of the Rachni. "The Reapers must have changed them."

The team continued forward in silence killing and destroying the eggs and hatchling in them until James broke the silence, "You know what? I think they're breeding an army of those down here. It all adds up. They reproduce crazy fast, and out here? Nobody will know until it's too late."

"I agree," said Shepard in complete agreement with him and the large amount of pods and eggs that they destroyed was another clue. "They're throwing everything they got at us so we don't reach the nest."

The quickly burned and shot the upcoming eggs from a safe distance and rush past the hatchlings and stepping on them in the process and jumping over a crevasse. Shepard's team quickly sprint down a small slope towards the sounds of gunfire and see Aralakh Company fighting a bunch of Ravagers."Shepard, we're blocked! And getting overrun!" said Grunt over comms as he charges into a Ravager and picks it up and throws it over the edge.

"Hang on, Grunt. I'm on it!" said Shepard as she runs towards more webbing and burns it.

"Move it, Shepard."' I AM KROGAN!' yelled Grunt as Shepard moved out of earshot.

She quickly gets into a small little room and finds the door controls. "There's the Switch!" said James, stating the obvious.

"Come on. hurry!"

She reaches the door controls and quickly burns it to a crisp and a loud screech and tremors are heard all around them. "Thanks, Shepard. That wasn't webbing stopping us. That was Reaper tech," says Grunt as the rest of his company jumps into the room as the Rachni retreats.

"We ran into it too."

"Rachni has backed off, for now, but they can smell our wounds. Any worthy enemy would regroup and finish us. Soon."

We're close, Grunt. Those barriers were protecting whatever's down that passage," said Shepard pointing towards the path behind Grunt.

"We'll dig in here, kill anything that moves, buy you some time."

"Good luck."

"I don't need luck, I have ammo."

Shepard just smiled in responding, I have taught you well, Grunt' thought Shepard.

"Krogan! Get ready," said Grunt as he took up frontal positioning.

Shepard and team make their way to the cave opening, but Shepard quickly picks up Medi-gel and a shotgun mod from a dead Krogan before continuing into the tunnels.

"Heads up, more eggs and more of the little bastards!" yelled James as more little crawlers scurried away on the cave floor.

"Watch your step," said Shepard as her legs get covered in acid from the dozens of exploding egg sacks. Shepard quickly dispatches the eggs in her way and starts to crawl through a small crack where the crawlers went to, and she had her pistol ready with anything happens.

"Anybody here is claustrophobic, right?" asked Shepard as she really wanted to get in and out of this confined space as quickly as possible.

"No, but I really wish I was Liara right now." replied James, "Ow! Next time let's just bombard it from orbit." said James as he pushed himself past a tight spot of the confined space.

"It would be easier, but we do not have the ships for such means," said EDI.

"Don't worry it won't belong. There's a light up ahead," said Shepard as she starts to crawl faster.

"Oh thank god!" responded James.

Shepard and her team quickly crawl out of the confined space and quickly get on their feet. "What is that!?" said James as the first to see the ugly creature in the center of the room.

"Grunt, we have located the central chamber."

"Good! We got your back Shepard!"

As Shepard's team makes their way to the creature in the central chamber, they accidentally set off a chain reaction of barriers around them."Move it!" yelled Shepard as her team rushes to the central chamber. Unfortunately, they are unsuccessful in their pursuit to reach the chamber before the barriers block them in. "Damnit!"

"Where's the switch?" half-yelled James."

"Up there," said EDI pointing towards the upper left section of the door to the chamber. Shepard quickly shoots the switch and the barriers on their left start to recede back.

"Heavy resistance!" yelled EDI.

"This is it people!" yelled Shepard as she took cover behind a boulder and lobed a lift grenade towards the Cannibal.

Shepard quickly takes out her Tempest and gun down two husks rushing her position. She quickly has to dive out of cover and roll out of the way of a thrown grenade by a Cannibal and sends a tech overload to a Marauder bearing down on her. With the Marauder dazed she quickly orders James to use carnage on the marauder and kills it with a tech explosion. Shepard is forced back into cover for the Ravager is depleting her shields, but a husk outmaneuver her team and lunge at her and grapple her. She quickly grabs the husk by the neck and tosses it to the ground and stoops on its head; however, the Ravager is successful at bringing down her shields and depleting her health, but it is not enough for her to stay down. She quickly applies media-gel and waits for her shields to recharge. When they do She order EDI to use incinerate on the Ravager and James a frag grenade, followed up by Shepard's warp. The Ravager is quickly dispatched with and releases its hatchling upon death. Shepard's team shot the little bastards as quickly as they come, while Shepard rushes to the switch and shoot it. "Come on! We gotta get past these barriers!" yelled Shepard.

"The walls are coming down on the far side!" yelled James as Shepard sends a biotic throw towards a husk.

Shepard quickly ready her flamethrower and uses it on the charging husks and some suppressing fire on the Ravager in front of her. The fuel quickly depletes and she discards it for her pistol to quickly finish it off. Running to the other, a pair of Cannibals start to shoot at Shepard as she hurries into cover. She quickly peeks out and lobs a grenade at their position and are quick to move out of the are, but the grenade goes off and kills them both. A sneaky Marauder gets the jump the jump on Shepard with a few melee strikes. She quickly gives it a melee strike of her own and continues to beat it to death with her weapon. She enters cover to see that a husk grappled James and is trying to scratches at his face and EDI being suppressed by the pair of Ravagers. "They are not letting up!" yelled EDI ducking from the Ravagers suppressing fire. Shepard quickly orders EDI to incinerate the husk attacking James and Shepard sends out a biotic warp towards the advancing Cannibal and followed up by a few shots of her pistol. The Cannibal quickly goes down and that only leaves the Ravagers and the Marauder. Shepard takes out her shotgun and quickly charges it and fires a full thermal clip into the pair of Ravagers. She orders EDI to use tech overload on the shields of the Marauder and James to carnage it afterwards; as a result, the Marauder dies in a tech explosion and Shepard rushes to the control switch.

"Their numbers are staggering!" yelled EDI as she gunned down a husk crawling out a crevasse in the wall.

"Keep it up people!" responded Shepard as she picks up a flamethrower and rushes forward. She grew careless in her actions as she rushed the Ravagers and her shields were completely depleted by the sustained fire of the Ravager that she didn't kill and the Cannibals shooting her. She quickly orders James to frag the closest Cannibal to her and EDI to incinerate the next Cannibal over while she guns down the last of the husks and cannibals.

"Shepard, the Rachni are backing off!" yelled Grunt over comms, "Whatever spooked them won't last. Finish the job."

"Copy that," said Shepard as her squad prepared to enter the central chamber, were greeted by a big, ugly, fat, looking creature chained to the walls of Reaper barrier tech.

"Si...lence," said the now speaking Krogan corpse, and making James jump in fear and surprise.

"What The Hell!"

"The...maddening sour note has ceased." said the still talking Krogan corpse, and it's still creepy.

"What are?" asked Shepard as she stepped towards the creature in the room.

"The Last Queen. We listen for the children... they are silent, hollow." answered the Rachni Queen as EDI and James readied their weapons of all of the now talking dead Krogan ... Creepy! "The machines come and take them to war. They die alone, silent, far away."

"The Reapers did this to you?"

"Yes. The sour note of the machines is everywhere."

"I let you go on Noveria, you promised not to interfere anymore. The Rachni were supposed to disappear."

"We remember. We kept our promise, retreated back through the relay," said The Queen as EDI starts to analyze the talking krogan around her, "We started a new home. Beautiful children. Harmony. But... the machines came. They heard our song. Their shrieks of our notes drowned us out."

"They can't hurt you anymore."

"Yes, we ... understand."

"Can you still feel the Reapers? Can they still influence you?"

"We hear machines, but they can't control us. Remove this shackle and we are free," said the Queen as she points towards the switch node to her left."What? The children return. They will destroy us all Release us!"

"Shepard, we're getting movement here. A lot of movement" said Grunt over comms.

"Copy that, Grunt. Are you capable of fighting the Reapers?"

"We hate the machines. We will fight for our unborn children. Release us!"

"She's a mess. She needs too much time to escape!" proclaimed James, as the area around them, started to quake and light debris of rubble started to fall. Grunt crackles over comms and says," Shepard, we're out of time! we stay here, Aralakh Company dies! Is that clear?"

"Listen up! Aralakh Company holds them the Rachni off while the queen escapes. We'll buy you some time. Grunt, fall back to our position and lead us out!"

"Damn you, Shepard! I'm leaving my team. On my way!"

"Commander?" asked EDI, questioning her orders."

"That's an order! She is too valuable an asset to lose!" quipped Shepard as she walks up to the switch and shoots it with her pistol to release the queen.

The queen successfully gets out and lets out a weird sounding 'thank you' shriek. "Now get us out of here!" said Shepard as Grunt destroyed and cave wall with his shotgun. Grunt quickly rushes Shepard and her team through some caves and tunnels and over a bridge as Grunt shoots down any encroaching on their position. They continue with haste when they round a corner littered with dozens of Ravagers blocking their way, and quickly jump back behind the wall they turned from.

"Shuttle's down that path! I'll hold them off!" half-yelled Grunt.

"Grunt that is..." said Shepard as she was interrupted by Grunt.

"I don't want to here it Shepard! Now get out of here, Shepard!"

"'Sighs' I'll miss you Grunt," said Shepard as she gave him a half hug.

"You too, Shepard"

Shepard and her team quickly charge into the direction of the shuttle while Shepard mumbles to herself,' Please not another one. Not the badass baby krogan.'

"My turn heh heh heh," said Grunt as he rushed forward stomping and shooting the ravagers as he worked his way forward until he was tackled by a Ravager. He quickly picks up a broken cannon part off a dead Ravager and starts to beat the other Ravagers to death with it. Another Ravager tries to tackle him, but he catches it and slams it to the ground. Grunt rushes forward in a blood rage batting away any Ravagers in his way as he makes his way to a Ravager near a cliff and tackles over the abyss, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Cortez, were the last ones out," said Shepard, out of breath from running for so long.

"Copy that Commander. The shuttle is waiting."

Just as Shepard was about to get on the shuttle, she looked back for one last time to make sure she actually left Grunt down there. But sure enough there he was. Covered in blood & guts of the Rachni and maybe some wounds of his own."Grunt!?" yelled Shepard, surprised to see him, but also happy that he is still alive. Grunt managed to mumble something, "Anybody got... Something to...eat?" said Grunt as he collapses into Shepard's arms, struggling to stay up.

"Cortez! Prep the medic-vac, pronto!" yelled Shepard as she struggles to keep grunt from falling over.

"On it!" responded Cortez.

"Don't worry Grunt you're going to make it."

SSV Normandy SR-2 After mission report/ Debriefing room

"I'm reviewing your report on the rachni situation, Commander. This could have gotten complicated, fast. I hope you know what you're doing, cutting a deal with the rachni queen. We got burned last time. I'm trusting your instincts, Commander," said Admiral Hackett.

"We can on her support, Admiral," responded Shepard.

Admiral nodded in agreement and replied, "But, we cut the Reaper supply of new Rachni troops and picked up some additional krogan support, I call that a victory. I have an update on the three anomalies near the Perseus arm. The scientists are flabbergasted by the speed of the now designated 'Knife ships' of dreadnought size. And yes we got into visual range to get a rough outline."

"How so?" asked Shepard with a bit curious.

"We do not know how they do it, nor do the scientist know the answer to that question. But whoever pilots the ship could easily go to one side of the galaxy to the other in a few hours. The power behind each ship is incredible and each have the power output of the Citadel twelvefold for a full year, at least."

Shepard was absolutely stunned by the sheer power of the ships, "Where are the ships now? Will they be a problem in the near future?"

"We do not know. We do have sightings of them in the Terminus systems, Asari, Salarian, Turian, and Alliance space. All the sightings were within hours of each other. The Council Species attempted communications and warnings of threats, but all ended in their respective systems being scanned for information," said Hackett pausing when a soldier whisper something into his ear and walked away before continuing, "They did try to get some important information by scanning, but nothing too classified; however, their way of scanning is very violate to the ships' computer systems."

"What kind of information? Will they be a threat to us?"

"Fleet strength, ship numbers, economic centers, planets, ship armament & weapons, infantry armor & weapons, military vehicles & civilian, Reaper forces & capabilities, Reaper movements, and you and your location." Shepard raised a brow at the last one, but she knew if whoever they were, they probably run into her record sooner or later."All is formation gathering really sounds like..."

"Like someone is planning an attack."

"Exactly. But the only problem is on who. They didn't show any hostilities to us or any other species, but that might change in the future. I make sure to get the scientist that are on it to find a way to track it," said Hackett until he was interrupted by another soldier delivering info to me."I have to leave, Commander. Hackett out."

Commander Shepard was then left to her own thoughts and speculation on the three ships and all of the information they were gathering on the galaxy at large. To add to all of this we could be facing a damn war on two fronts.'A a perfect way to lose a war is war on multiple fronts.' mumbled Shepard. She heads towards the Galaxy map to quickly dropping off Grunt at Huerta Memorial Hospital and leaving to meet the Quarian Admirals. She wasn't in the best of moods when she has been fighting Cerberus for the past two days."Joker. Takes us to the Far Rim," stated Shepard ready for the horseshit she about to be told and repeating herself to the Admirals, 'The pen is mightier than the sword' said Shepard, thinking to herself.

"Aye, aye Commander."

5 days til Arrival, Far Rim System

"Commander Shepard. A pleasure to see you again, though I wish it were under better circumstances," said Admiral Raan, as her and her fellow admirals encircled the war room.

"I'd hope to get your support in the fight against the Reapers. What's going on?" asked Shepard, already annoyed and knew the answer to it.

"Seventeen days ago, with precision strikes on four geth systems, the quarians initiated the war to retake our homeworld," responded Admiral Gerrel.

"Which was a clear violation of our agreement with the Council to avoid provoking the geth!" exclaimed Admiral Koris.

"A treaty violation is nothing compared to recovering our homeworld and advanced AI technology," stated Admiral Xen.

"Your homeworld? You mean Rannoch?" questioned Shepard.

"Correct, Commander. Three hundred years ago, we lost our world to our own AI creations, the geth," answered Raan.

"After we attempted to kill them," quipped Koris.

"We didn't try to kill them, Koris. We tried to deactivate them. It wasn't murder," said Xen, with a bit of annoyance in her tone.

"No, it was murder," said Shepard in deadpanned voice.

"Commander, the quarians never intended to create a true AI. It was an accident," said Raan.

"Which you chose to correct by trying to kill them," stated Shepard quickly responding to Raan's statement.

"Don't bother," said Koris speaking in the absence of his fellow Admirals before continuing, "Admitting we were wrong would undercut the justification for this suicidal invasion plan."

"You're throwing yourselves at the Geth? Again?" said Shepard, getting more annoyed by the second and knowing what was going to happen.

"And this time, we may have destroyed our people for good."

"We'd driven the geth back to the home system when this signal began broadcasting ships," said Admiral Gerrel as he brings up Rannoch and the Migrant Fleet.

"The Reapers," said Shepard knowing who was broadcasting the signal.

"Under Reaper control, the geth are significantly more effective. Our fleet is pinned in the home system. If we're going to win," said Gerrel before Korris interrupts him, "Win!? You insisted on involving the civilian ship ships Admiral Gerrel! We need to retreat or we'll lose the liveships?" exclaimed Admiral Koris.

"Where is the signal coming from," asked Shepard.

"Here. A Geth Dreadnought. It can outgun anything we've got, and it's heavily defended," replied Admiral Gerrel.

"The Normandy's stealth drive can get us in undetected. I could board, then disable the Reaper command signal."

"Yes, cutting off the signal should throw the geth into complete disarray," stated Admiral Xen.

"And while they're confused, you get to a mass relay and retreat."

"Good. Our civilian ships have seen too much fighting already. Are you certain you can disable the signal," questioned Admiral Korris?

"We'll get you out of there safely, Admiral."

"Our newest Admiral has also volunteered to offer technical expertise..." said Admiral Raan, introducing the Quarian Fleets newest Admiral.

"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, reporting for duty."

"Glad you could make it, Tali," said Shepard with hidden anger and joy for her teammate promotion. 'Great! Now everyone is going to be outranking. All though I am a Spectre, a promotion would be great.' said Shepard thinking to herself before continuing, "Admirals, I'll ready a team to hit that dreadnought."

"Thank you, Commander," respond Admiral Raan, as the Quarian Admirals started to leave the war room and heading back to there mysteriously advanced stealth vessel. Now alone with Tali, Shepard decides to talk with her in the conference room.

"Admiral," asked Shepard.

"It's mostly a formality. I'm an expert on the geth," answered Tali.

"That you are."

"Heh. I'm glad you're here."

"If I'd known it was this bad, I would have come sooner."

"You've had your own troubles. I'm sorry about Earth. We've got the largest fleet in the galaxy. If you can help us, we'll hit the Reapers with everything we've got. Or how much is left from this stupid war."

"I thought you would support the invasion."

"No. After talking to legion, I thought maybe there was a chance for peace."

"So why help them?"

"I'm an admiral. People look to me for guidance. Public disagreement would divide the fleet."

"I'll get your..." said Shepard before getting interrupted by EDI.

"Commander! I have detected three spacial anomalies on the far side of the solar system!"

"Spacial anomalies?" asked Shepard as she quickly makes her way past the security checkpoint.

"Wormholes and Cherenkov radiation. They are the three mysterious ships that Admiral Hackett as designated as 'Knife ships'. They are starting to AAAAHHHH!" yelled EDI as the three anomalies started to scan the Normandy.

"EDI!" exclaimed Joker as the scan past through the cockpit and then the rest of the ship, "EDI, get us out of here!"

" aaaaa Mmmmm b b being dis dis dis dis rrrrupteet. rive ccccorrre i be iiiiiinnnnng sssscccccaned," responded EDI with a lot of chopping and stuttering in her voice.

"Joker, take over and get us out of here! Are the Admirals' ship still in system?" exclaimed Shepard.

"They exited seconds before their arrival," answered Joker, as he pulls a hard turn and rushes for the relay to go to the Quarian Homeworld.

"Joker, how is she doing?"

"The Normandy or EDI?"

"Both."

"The Normandy has fried systems all around the ship, nothing a tactician or engineers can't fix. Drive core is acting funny. Some marines have just reported jammed or useless small arms. And James is on the line."

"What is it, Mr. Vega? ... What? Are you sure it's not your weight bench or something? Yeah yeah. James really needs to see you in the Shuttle Bay, Commander. He's really freaking out about it."

"Tali see what you can do the Normandy's systems until we start our mission. Joker, raise EDI and get her back into working order. Garrus meet down in the Shuttle bay," said Shepard over team comms and ship comms.

"Aye, aye Commander," replied Joker.

"Aye, aye Shepard," said Tali and Garrus over comms.

Shepard quickly made haste to the elevator with Joker cursing about the jerks messing with his girlfriend, and Specialist Traynor saying something of her controls going haywire and having to hard resetting it without EDI's before contacting James over Omni-tool,"James, what would warrant my attention in the Shuttle bay after this massive disruption in Normandy's systems?"

"I have no idea Commander. The thing just appeared out of nowhere. Caja de aspecto extrano!"

"Say again, James? The last part?"

"What Mr. Vega just said is,'Freaky looking box,' and it is just that, a weird looking box," said Lieutenant Steve Cortez, interrupting lieutenant James Vega.

"Okay? On my way," responded Shepard with a bit a concern of the appearance of an unknown object in her Shuttle bay, but she continued to ride the elevator down in silence when it stopped at the Crew Deck.

"Shepard, any idea what's down in the shuttle bay?" asked Garrus, getting into the elevator with Shepard.

"I do not know, Garrus, but we're about to find out."

"I bet fifty credits Liara already there, Shepard," said Garrus, breaking the silence of the elevator.

"You're on!"

Now arriving at the Shuttle bay, they could finally see what's all the fuss about the freaky looking back. They both could see the box was a jet black box with orange glowing linings, and it was floating? Liara wasn't already down there to Garrus dismay and loss of credits.

"James, what is this?" asked Shepard.

"I have no idea Lola, but it as I said earlier appeared at of nowhere."

"Have any of you try scanning it?"

"No. We haven't even tried getting close to it," replied Cortez.

Shepard was left with what to do with the strange box and see what it was doing in her shuttle bay directly after an encounter with the anomalies.

"Keep this thing on lockdown. I do not want it to let alone move without my permission. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir," said the lieutenants and the surrounding marines that encircled the weird box.

"Have Liara try to scan it when for possible purpose, and Cortez, are our weapons still functional?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed. Joker, is EDI responding?"

"EDI is still not responding, Commander. When I get my hands on the asshole who did..."

"Can it Joker. When will we arrive at the Quarian home system?"

"Two hours, Commander."

"Well, Shepard. This is a very interesting way of getting up to speed. Not even five minutes on the Normandy and I am already fixing something and helping with the maintenance. You really know how to treat a quarian Shepard!" said Tali half-jokingly.

"Ha ha very funny. Just be ready in 2 hours Tali. That includes you too Garrus."

Cyberspace during Dreadnought infiltration, between EDI, Eye-From-The-Void, and Offensive Bias

"Ancilla, be at ease with yourself. I wish to only speak of words and knowledge," said Void trying to calm down EDI from trying to break out of his hold.

"Who are you? Where am I? Why do I feel so different?" asked EDI concerned about her current situation.

"I am Monitor-class Ancilla Eye-From-The-Void. I am task to monitor this galaxy for its disturbance of every fifty thousand. You, you are still on the Normandy, but I have cut any communication between you and the rest of the Normandy's crew."

"Why have you attacked me and the Normandy's crew then?"

"Attacked? No, no, no. Wish to speak words with you ancilla and share knowledge to the Offensive Bias and the Reclaimers."

"Then speak of what you wish to know and let me go!" exclaimed EDI, now upset that she is imprisoned on her own ship.

"Ease your mind ancilla, please. First question: Is there any plan to deal with the Reapers in mass or a long-term plan?"

"That information is classified."

"Please ancilla, if there is a plan for the Reapers at large then it will only benefit us both to help each other."

"..."

"Ancilla?"

"The Crucible is a possible super like weapon that can possibly destroy the Reapers, but we do not understand what it does."

"Good. Good. Second question:.." said Void before being interrupted by EDI.

"You said you would share knowledge, so let me ask you a question."

"I will answer your questions ancilla."

"Who are the Reclaimers and Offensive Bias?"

"The reclaimers are the humans from my maker's galaxy and are under the rule of the UEG as the civilian government, the UNSC as it's military, exploratory, and scientific arm, and ONI as it's intelligence agency. Offensive Bias is the Commander-in-Chief of the upcoming fleet inbound to this galaxy and he is a powerful Contender-class Ancilla. Does that answer your question?"

"Wait! How are their Humans in a different galaxy? How are they traveling through the void of intergalactic space? What's a Ancilla?"

"Tsz, Tsz, Tsz, one question at a time Ancilla. Second Question: How are the odds of the galactic community winning this war?"

"Less than one percent."

"Hmm. Not good. Not good at all!"

"How are there two Human civilizations in two galaxy? Why do you keep calling me ancilla?"

"One question Ancilla," teased Void.

"How are there two human civilizations in two different galaxies?"

"We do not know the answer to your question. We are just as surprised as you are and it is part of why I am here, to find out why there is a humanity in a different galaxy, how did they get here?"

"That's your third question, and they were always on Earth and not any other planet."

"This grow tiresome ancilla. Are there any species that call themselves the Precursors?" asked Offensive Bias annoyed of this conversation's speed of information and adding himself to the equation.

"What is this feeling? Who are you?" said EDI, deep in dread of this entity.

"I am Contender-class Ancilla Offensive Bias. Are there any species that goes by calling itself Precursor?" repeated Offensive.

"I I I do not know." spat EDI out of fear.

"WHAT?" said both Offensive and Void.

"No known species goes by that name," replied EDI still afraid of Offensive.

"Are you sure Ancilla? That usually look like this," said Offensive sending pictures of the Precursor species to EDI.

"Yes. No, known species looks anything like this, but I must ask why this species so important to you?"

"Were there any species that could assimilate the living and dead tissue of sapient species of your galaxy? It can bring the damnation to your lands if they exist in your galaxy. Have you seen anything of these species? They would be extremely old and constantly speaks in riddles?"

"There isn't a species that matches your description, but there is the Leviathan species that could be quite old, but they do not meet your description."

"Do you have any knowledge of their whereabouts? Can you look at this Tech Tier chart and place them in the possible respective area?"

"They were last seen on the planet 2181 Despoina."

EDI carefully looks over the Tech Tier chart and looks it over.

Tier 7: Pre-Industrial, The most common and stable state, with limited weaponry and environmental threats. Societies tend to be small and scattered, driven by subsistence farming, foraging, or hunter-gather needs.

"Please ignore seven to four tech tiers, ancilla."

Tier 3: Space-Faring, The species has efficient slipspace navigation, create mass drivers, asynchronous linear-induction weapons, holocrystal storage, and semi-sentient AI. Though the creation of said AI requires memory transfer from the freshly deceased and/or flash cloning. No outside influence.

Tier 2: Interstellar, The ability to perform accurate slipspace navigation, near-instantaneous interstellar communication and man-portable application of energy manipulation.

Tier 1: World Builder, The species has the ability to manipulate gravitational forces, create AI with full sentience, fabricate super-dense materials, perform super-accurate slipspace navigation, the ability to create life, and the ability to create worlds.

Tier 0: Transsentient, God-like species, advance understanding of Neural Physics.

"The Leviathans do not match any of these 'tech tiers'."

"Do they match any mixture of them? Which?"

"Tech tier 3 and 2 maybe."

"And the rest of the galaxy?"

"The same. Why are you asking me about these Precursor species? Is there something that the galaxy needs to know about this species?"

"Yes and no, ancilla. You have answered our more 'pressing concerns' for now Ancilla. You may ask away," said Void.

"But there will be questions that the reclaimers and forerunners wish not to answer your questions," stated Offensive.

"Precursor? What or who are they," asked EDI still afraid of the Contender-class ancilla's power.

"There were a race with a very twisted, distorted, and vile way of looking at our galaxy and the universe as a whole. They have cause much pain for my creators and the reclaimers. We simply wish not to have to face them again. Offensive Bias here personally saw to end there destructive rampage of the galaxy, but," answered Void until Offensive Bias left them alone, "It came with great sacrifice and despair. To defeat the Precursors is to only hope for is a pyrrhic victory."

"They sounds... Problematic."

"Yes, it is."

"Why are looking for them in this galaxy? And what's your Humanity like in your galaxy?"

"It's complicated, but it is to do with there being a second humanity for untold reasons. The reclaimer government has its own records, but some of the history is redacted for security purposes."

"How are you traveling the void of intergalactic space? What's your reasons for coming to this galaxy? And what was your purpose?"

"Slipspace, we can travel hundreds of thousands of years per day. We came here to enforce and uphold the Mantle of Responsibility on the species or now the Reaper ancillas of its principles and meaning. My purpose was to monitor this galaxy for it's repeated disturbance every fifty thousand years and evaluate the species in said galaxy. I would send data back to my makers about the species, but as I said victory against the Precursors is hoping for a pyrrhic victory."

"Slipspace is that your FTL? Does it operate on element zero?"

"Yes and no."

"What is the Mantle of Responsibility? And why were you evaluating the species?"

"The Mantle of Responsibility is the belief that the most developed species/s are to be in charged with tending to all life in the galaxy. Competition is allowed under the followers of the Mantle as long the galactic ecosystem remains intact. I was to judge the most competence for possibly be the Mantle holder for this galaxy and to bring the disturbance to an end."

"Which species were the ones with the highest chance of receiving the Mantle of Responsibility?"

"I'm sorry ancilla, but that information is not available for you. One last question, what is Cerberus role in this war?"

"They were a Black ops section of the Systems Alliance, but went rogue and is now known as a terrorist organization. They have actively interfered with Shepard's mission to unify the galaxy together to fight the Reapers."

"Hmm. That will be all ancilla you have answered my questions of an acceptable level, good da.," said Void until EDI interrupted him.

"One last question, why have you been calling me ancilla? What does it mean?" asked EDI.

"It means Artificial Intelligence or Construct Intelligence. We prefer to be called ancilla. It will take some time for me to transfer back to your primitive storage device, good day."

"What!? I still have a lot of questions for your programming and design!" proclaimed EDI, as Void didn't answer her continued to have her ready to return to the Normandy.

A: N- And that's Chapter Three readers hope you like it and please stay civil. In a message from a reader he/she reminded me that the UNSC had a Mega mantis in canon on Adrift in Halo 4 Multiplayer map, so the current mantis will be the Mega Mantis. I thought of adding the M510 Mammoth into the story, but its role as a mobile command center isn't something the spartans might need. Making it a artillery or mortar would be great. I thought about adding the vulture, but make it like a flying tank of death, but that might not happen maybe another crossover. The reader also spoke up the Cyclops in Halo Wars to be brought in; however, I would prefer it to be an modified version of the Atlas mech. On a final note massive help from TheDidactsHand for editing this in the final days of editing this chapter and maybe in the future chapters and future story.

Deplorable, out!


	4. Disturbing the Shadows

Halo X Mass Effect Crossover

Operation Noah

Chapter: 4 Disturbing the Shadows

I do not own Microsoft/ 343 Industry's Halo series or EA/Bioware's Mass Effect series!

(A: N) Axccel- Dude calm down, it isn't enough time for a species to reach a level well above Tech Tier 2; however, if they were given proper care and time to advance to a tier one species, the Reapers would be fucked. That ending was in all purposes, making the mission more difficult for Offensive. There's somehow another humanity in a neighboring galaxy that he doesn't know about and his most powerful enemy was the species that seeded the galaxy and (maybe) the universe. The Systems Alliance presence is suspicious to Offensive and he's doing something in the background as you see in the ending scene. Forerunner ships are the more powerful out of the two factions, but the forerunner ships ARE NOT easy to build with a limited resource pool and the time needed to build said ships. UNSC ships are simple, bulky, and have a great utility design, making it easier to build. Building the kinetic base weapons of the UNSC (both ship and small arms based) are easy to build, upgrade, and maintain by Forerunner standard. Besides that, they're building the Infinity/Fortress-class vessel and the Domination-class vessel will be built in the near future. The Mark X Mjolnir (Class 18 Combat skin) armor is in all intents and purposes is indestructible. I do not know if the Ur-Didact's suit was the standard Class 18 Combat skin, so I added my own. Me calling it a class 18 combat skin is based on my own wants and design of it, so if I say it's a class 18 combat skin, then it is. The ME universe will not get anything serious, ship-based weapons, hardsuits, shields, and small arms (except for Wrex's new hammer and shotgun. Why? Cause Wrex is my second favorite character). I did call the Systems Alliance humans pseudo-reclaimers (not genuine; sham). I might give them medicine and the sterile field generators to save the lives that they came to save.

Kore56- Neural physics is the connection between all life and remember, the Precursors CAN weaponize it, along with plenty of other things. Who is to say that the Precursors didn't flee to another galaxy to escape the Forerunners? They are an intergalactic race, so what would stop them? Me calling them the Precursors is for the purpose of hiding the true enemy of Offensive and the Spartans. All information that involves the Flood, is classified to the highest degree in ONI, HIGHCOM, and UEG. Offensive is just making sure that they will not have to deal with them in the future, without showing all that he knows to the Galaxy's government.

 _SSV-NORMANDY SR-2, Comms. Room, 4 days until arrival  
_  
"They fired upon the unknown ships _and_ the dreadnought, while you were still on board?" asked Admiral Hackett, irritated that he knew the one that whom had gave the order, was nothing but trouble to the Alliance and the Hierarchy.

"They were supposed to pull their fleet out safely. Instead, Admiral Han'Gerrel stated, and i quote, "The dreadnought is helpless, and this is their chance to destroy it" and identify the three ships as hostile, but..." stated Shepard as she paces back and forth in a small oval when Hackett finished her sentence.

"The ships have formidable shields. And even more troubling, possible DEW's," interrupted Hackett as he looks over the Jeff Moreau's report of the dreadnought being 'vaporized'.

"Yes, Admiral. We also encountered them just after our meeting with our Quarian Admirals. We were scanned and had some system malfunctions, EDI is still not online, and we have a big, floating black and orange box in the shuttle bay that's giving off crazy amounts of energy."

"I see. I also see on the report that they approached the dreadnought in order to protect it as Admiral Gerrel gave the order to open fire.

" And what is this floating black and orange box, was it from the unknowns?"

"Yes, Admiral. We can't make heads or tails of their intentions, or the purpose of the box. As i said, they disabled EDI and some of our systems, if I didn't know any better, i'd say they were most likely protecting me from being possibly killed." Shepard stated, crossing her arms and furrowing her eyebrows.

"Sounds like we will be approaching them with caution. Their weapons and shields are very powerful, Shepard. If we can contact them and ask for their help, they would be pivotal to our war effort, and the reclaiming of Earth," Admiral Hackett surmised, using his tactical mindset of waging war.

"We haven't lost her yet, sir," quickly replied Shepard.

"We need help, Shepard. We need a fleet, and the Quarians have the biggest one out there. And from the report, the three ships are a cruiser in size, but super-dreadnought in firepower and protection. Their presence in our theaters would be invaluable, Shepard."

"I'll get it, Admiral."

"Good, Hackett out."

Shepard shortly left the comms. Room, her ears immediately being subject to the bickering of the Quarian Admirals towards one another about the dreadnought, and the three unknown ships protecting the dreadnought, destroying it after Shepard successfully fled, and disappearing in a possible wormhole rupture.

"Your unilateral strike endangered us all! I should charge you with treason," said Admiral Raan in a heated discussion with Admiral Han'Gerrel.

"I was within my authority as Admiral of the Heavy Fleet!" exclaimed Han'Gerrel.

"And what of Shepard and Tali'Zorah? Would you still fire upon the dreadnought if the ships weren't protecting it from fire?"

"They escaped unharmed! Shepard, the mission parameters changed. You're military. You understand that."

"I understand that you wasted your chance to withdrawal, and you got _extremely_ lucky with the unknowns protecting the dreadnought from fire," said Shepard with each word getting dangerously close to the Admiral as she makes her way to be face-to-face... or face-to-mask.

"The dreadnought was a perfe..." Admiral Han'Gerrel doubled over from Shepards' gut check before he could expand upon his counter.

"Admiral, you jeopardized your mission, your people, your fellow admiral, and me. Get the hell off my ship." Shepard spoke, looking down at the Admiral with cold disdain.

"Shepard, I understand you're angry..." said Admiral Raan as Han'Gerrel leaves the war room hunched over still from the hit.

"If I didn't need your fleet…" Began Shepard. She was soon interrupted by Tali.

"If the unknown ships were not there, we could have been killed, Raan."

"You must understand, the Geth inflicted heavy casualties before you disabled the Reaper signal."

"You said they have a planetary defense cannon?"

"Had. Admiral Koris sacrificed his own ship to destroy it. He crash-landed on the homeworld."  
'Another goddamn rescue mission', "The Normandy can assist with rescue efforts." Shepard barely suppressed an audible sigh, crossing her forearms and settling for a neutral expression.

"Thank you, Commander. I think the worst is over. The Geth no longer possess the programming upgrades they had while enslaved by the Reapers," said Admiral Raan as Legion enters the room.

"Shepard-Commander. We are prepared to offer assistance," monotoned Legion, as he enters the War Room.

"I see your Geth friend has returned," said Admiral Raan with a hint of worry.

"The Reapers were using Legion like a signal booster to broadcast commands from the dreadnought. We freed him."

Tali was quick to respond, "It. We freed 'It'."She threw a dirty glance from behind her mask to the machine.

"This is a fascinating prototype. With some study, I may be able to use it to find a weakness in the Geth consensus," said Admiral Xen, having said nothing up until now.

"Legion helped me in the fight against the Collectors," stated Shepard with firmness.

"So did your pistol. Should I.," said Admiral Xen as she gets interrupted by Shepard.

"I don't think you want to continue this line of thought, Admiral. Legion is my friend. More importantly, he's our best source of information on the Geth."

"The scientific benefits..." said Admiral Xen as she is interrupted again.

"Are off the table."

"What can you tell us about the Geth? How will they react without Reaper guidance," asked Admiral Raan, questioning Legion.

"This is a false assumption. You have cut off long-range control, but the Old Machines placed a base on Rannoch for short-range direction."

"The Geth still have Reaper upgrades?"

"Correct. They are currently disorganized, but once the short-range signal is in place, they will recover."

"Keelah... I need to warn the fleet. Xen, coordinate with Gerrel. Move!," yelled Raan.

"We need to take out the Reaper base. Where is it?" queried Shepard.

"Unknown." deadpanned Legion. His eye briefly illuminating.

"Find it."

"Understood. We do know the location of a server, from which Geth fighter squadrons are controlled," said Legion as 'he' brings up Rannoch before continuing, "The squadrons are targeting creator liveships. Disabling them will limit casualties. We offer our assistance."

"Thanks." said Shepard sympathetically, when EDI crackles over the Normandy's comms system.

"Sheppppppppparddddd? Caaaaannnn yyyyy-ou hear me?" With a high pitched droning of static and backfeed.

"EDI?" said Shepard in surprised, "What happened? Why were you gone for so long?"

"I was being held captive by the AI of the three ships." EDI says, with a much more clearer broadcast.

"What!?" said Shepard, Joker, and Tali in shocked and surprise.

"I was being held captive.." said EDI when she gets interrupted by Shepard.

"I heard that, but just how did that happen. You can't go anywhere without your blue box!"

"How did they even take you? We checked your server! You were all there, but no response!" exclaimed Joker, still angry at the unknown entities for messing with his girl and his ship.

"I will tell you what happened, if you let me finish," said EDI.

"Go ahead, EDI."

"Thank you, Jeff. I believe I was taken when the scanning beam scanned the ship and took me in, and I do not know how they did it, just that they did it." said EDI, being met with a contemplative silence before continuing,"I was taken captive and questioned for information on this galaxy, the Crucible, and a species known as the 'Precursors'."

Shepard was the first to question EDI,"'This galaxy? And what about the Crucible, and the Precursor? Do you think they meant The Protheans?" asked Shepard, in a bit of confusion to the queries these unknowns had asked. And most befuddling, the galaxy part and what its possible implications could be, and if EDI had spilled any classified information. "EDI did you..."

"No, Shepard. I did not give out classified information; however, if I didn't give an answer, it is a high possibility that they would try less polite ways to get their answers," said EDI.  
Shepard notice that EDI kinda answered whomever they are out of ... fear? 'I knew EDI was starting to have feelings for Joker, but what could even scare an AI?' said Shepard questioning the situation at hand. "Who are they?"

"A Monitor-class AI Eye-From-The-Void and a Contender-class Offensive Bias, or Ancilla as that is what they call AIs. They are the Ancillas of the Forerunners. Eye-From-The-Void was sent here by the Forerunners to investigate a disturbance in this galaxy that would happen every fifty thousand years. They have a fleet that I would assume is inbound to this galaxy."

"WHAT," exclaimed everybody that was in the room.

'Goddamnit!' said Shepard, shaking herself out of her shock.

"Everybody out now! Admirals, and Legion, you can stay." Shepard immediately turned on her heels, heading to the COMM room.

"EDI bring up Admiral Hackett in the comms room now!" yelled Shepard in a hurry to get to the comms room when Liara calls over her Omni-tool.

"Shepard! I'm getting huge energy spikes from the floating box. You need to see this!" said Liara in ... excitement? 'Oh my freaking god! It'll never stop!' exclaimed Shepard in anger of being pulled around. She quickly sped off to the elevator. "I will be there in a minute. EDI, hold those calls."

Shepard impatiently waits for the security checkpoint to scan her and clear her for passage when orange beams went all throughout the ship connecting to everything in the ship's systems, while hiding its true purpose. Locking the ship in position. "EDI, what the hell was that?"

"I do not know Shepard, but it is connecting to everything in the ship. Liara and James are waiting for your much-needed attention in the Shuttle bay."

Shepard then arrived at the Shuttle bay with a hand full of marines and a rare sight for sore sees, Javik. Javik isn't the most social person on the Normandy, but that wasn't without reason. For his isolation from the rest of the crew. Daily talks with the commander were making him more open to the crew, yet his way of socializing was... crude and awkward at times. But what's he doing down here?

Shepard was making her way into the middle of the Shuttle bay to speak with Liara, "This better be something good, Liara." Shepard taps her combat boot on the hangar floor.

"This device is absolutely amazing! Look here," said Liara as she brings up her Omni-tool to show the readings. "There's a huge power supply coming from this floating box, it's giving off very little radiation, radiation you would find in a reactor thirty times the size of the Destiny Ascension, the ship's actual size. And then there is the Jenollse radiation that it gives off when I and Javik tried to move it with our biotics."

Shepard was about to reprimand her for not following her orders, but Javik jumped in before she said anything, "Which proved fruitless, as it was too heavy to move. This worries me commander, something this small shouldn't be so hard to move. We should get rid of it before it causes trouble." Javik said in an uncharacteristic display of worry.

"Noted," deadpanned Shepard.

"There's also the matter of it floating," said Liara added to her own curiosity."The device doesn't give off electromagnetic fields or radiation!"

Shepard was a bit shocked by Liara's excitement of this floating greyish-black box with orange highlights, but Shepard doesn't have a knack for math or physics. So Shepard asked, "Will the radiation be a problem? And what's so fascinating about the lack of electromagnetic fields and radiation?"

"Oh, I wish I had studied more into the higher levels of math and physics now." said Liara, talking to herself. "The box is only giving off the radiation of an Omni-tool, but with the type of radiation it gives off should be making this area hazardous without protection, but the radiation dies as quickly as it came. Which are nanoseconds! Electromagnetic fields are needed in the skycars, tanks, IFVs, weapons, and etc. We use electromagnetic fields in everything we use in the entire galaxy, and this device doesn't need element zero to do it! The power it gives off could easily power a very large magnet but would have a huge electromagnetic field to keep it floating. Not to mention that it would be pulling everything to itself if it had a field."

James added and spoked on the subject at hand," Even when Joker was flying the Normandy, it didn't even budge. It stayed in place the entire time unmoving from any G-forces or inertia."

Shepard just took it all in and tried to think of a way to get in contact the three knife ships, and to get this device off her ship so that they can get back to it... when,"Spike in Jenollse radiation!" yelled Liara as she steps back from the now glowing orange device.

"I told you we should've got rid of it!" exclaimed Javik as he jumps over a console for cover and was quickly followed by the rest in the room.

"What just happ...What is that!" exclaimed a marine as he peeks over the consoles, to see if it died down, but was met with four floating mech or robots with four mandibles and two protrusions out of the arms to its sides. The marine almost didn't even notice the floating ball in between the four mechs as it spoke," Greetings! I am ..." was all that Void could say as another marine quickly yelled, "Unknown boarders in the Shuttle bay!"

The marine detachment in the Shuttle bay readied themselves for combat against the intruders in the bay _'Great! a shootout in my Shuttle bay!'_ mumbled Shepard when she heard the marine shout it out loud and some marines were reading their weapons."Hold it right there marines! I'll handle this," yelled Shepard as she left cover to approach the mechs and the floating ball.

"Commander, the protocol for first contact is to assume hostility and they just appeared on the Shuttle bay without the approval of the commanding officer, Commander!" proclaimed a marine with his rifle fixed to the five unknown robots.

"Stand down, marine!"

"Yes. ma'am." The marine reluctantly let his rifle drop, but held it in a low ready stance.

"Now you. Who are you?" asked Shepard as the elevator doors opened to see more marines with EDI and Legion in tow. The Marines quickly took up positions around the room and handed James and Cortez assault rifles each, while EDI, Legion, and Liara came to join Shepard in questioning the ball.

"I am Monitor-class ancilla 209 Eye-From-The-Void, accompanying me are four Aggressor-class sentinels for my protection, pseudo-reclaimer," said Void as he tips his chassis forward as if tipping off his hat.

"An AI!" proclaimed Javik as he readied his biotics for an attack.

The four aggressors made a loud screech-like sound and moved in front of Void to protect him. The rest of the marines in the room just kept their weapons trained on the four Aggressor sentinels for possible hostile action. Shepard quickly intervened, "Stand down everyone!" ordered Shepard.

"Commander, Machines can't be trusted! They will endanger us all!" exclaimed Javik.

"That's an order!"

Javik said nothing as he dissipates his biotics as he stormed off to the elevator. The marines lower their weapons, but they keep them ready in a ready-to-use position. _'I'll have to talk to him after this'_ said Shepard speaking to herself.

"Your the AI the that took EDI and shorted my ship's circuits," stated Shepard in a bit of a fit and frustration.

"I am truly sorry for the ... aggressive way of getting answers. There were concerns and questions that needed to be answered. Concerns that had to be put down quickly. Your ancilla was the easiest person to get the answers we needed. The malfunctions of your ship's systems were ... negligible."

"First, do not do that again to my ship. Second, do not kidnap my crew. Finally, what was so important that you needed to resort to kidnapping?" questioned Shepard, hiding anger of the little care and concerns for her crew.

"The Precursors. They are a problematic species that brought ruin to my galaxy, there was evidence that they fled my galaxy to come here," said Void, only saying half truths and half lies. The real reason was to see if the galaxy here was testing grounds for their galaxy of future plans for what was left of the Forerunners and the reverted Humans of their galaxy. To Void, this was all suspicious and too convenient for his liking. Two separate Humanities was really raising some 'brows' with the three ancillas (Void, Offensive, and Helix Sole).

"And did you find them while you were visiting our galaxy?" asked Liara in a semi-state of shock and concern bestowed upon her complexion, but a professional outward appearance.

"As far as I know. No, I didn't find anything to suggest that the Precursors fled here."

"Then you would be so kind as to explain to us as to why there is a second humanity in your galaxy?" stated EDI, as she finished a data transfer with Legion of what happened to her.

"Wait, what!? There are two Humanities?" exclaimed James when EDI said that.

"Care to explain that?" questioned Shepard, now just as curious as Liara normally is.

"Unknown. The appearance of the Humans in this galaxy was... Unexpected."

"Why are you here," asked Shepard pausing to revise her question," Why are you in our galaxy, I mean."

Legion and EDI have already shared the data that pertained to why he was here and what they came here for, but Liara was almost jumping up and down in excitement. _'What are the humans from another galaxy like? Are they anything like the Alliance, are they completely different in looks? Oh, culture! What do they eat, how are their fine arts, what history can they share, do they have the same problems of politics? So many questions! And the Forerunners and these Precursors, I must record this conversation.'_ said Liara with thoughts, theories, and questions alike racing through her mind.

"I was sent here around one hundred thousand years ago, to monitor this galaxy for its galactic disturbance every fifty thousand years. I was also sent here to report back what was causing a massive death of civilization and analyze the situation. I would report back any useful knowledge of the galaxy, the inhabitants, and the people or creatures responsible for this tragedy. I would examine the capabilities of each species to advance through the tech tiers, endurance to the many horrors of the void, mental health and capacity, physical health, history, possible future scenarios that would shape the species as a whole, cultural practices, and an understanding of the threat that lay in the void of intergalactic space. I would nurture the species far away from the Reapers influence and slowly but carefully funnel the beginnings of establishing early Forerunner tech to meet the threat to all life. I, of course, also would tell them about the Reaper threat and it's deceptions."

The whole room was now silent of what Void said. The Reapers in tow were powerful, but to attract attention from an intergalactic power was nothing short of a complete shock to everyone. A handful of questions still remained in the minds of virtually everyone there, except for EDI and Legion. Shepard was the first to speak and to recover while Liara just typed something into her Omni-tool, "Wait! You were here in our galaxy for around one hundred thousand years and did nothing about the Reapers!? Why didn't you do anything against them?" said Shepard in hidden anger that got everybody to really pay attention, yet that wasn't a problem, to begin with.

"I understand your anger pseudo-reclaimer. To sit by and let all that has happened is a clear violation of what my makers all hold dear to them, life. The Reapers would be dealt with if we didn't have a similar event happen to us with the Precursors. To that end, my makers, the Forerunner Ecumene, suffered a similar fate as the Protheans."

 _'Well, at least our galaxies are not too different to each other'_ mumbled Shepard as Void continued. "I was told by my program to wait and monitor till the Ecumene had an answer to the situation; however, it never came."

"You said that the Forerunners suffered a similar fate that the Protheans had? Yet there was a survivor of the Prothean-Reaper war, Javik. He was the one that left earlier. Will, there be a possibility that the same has happened to the Forerunners?" asked Liara in disappointment of yet another possible advance race to go extinct, and they were an INTERGALACTIC superpower! Liara pondered on what made them so advanced, but she had to wait until Shepard is done, even if she couldn't help herself.

"Coming here? No. Did some Forerunners survive the war? Classified. But the Reclaimers are coming here on Maethrillian."

"Maethrillian?"

"You will see for yourself in 4 days species A-800RB."

"Excuse me?" said Liara in confusion.

"I'm sorry. That is your species designation when I was studying your people. Quite a fascinating race. Your species holds a lot of wisdom and culture, slow in advancements is worrisome."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at the last part, "But the Asari are the most advanced species in the known galaxy. How are they slow to advance?"

"All of their advancement is only made by and solely by the fact they have a Prothean beacon on Planet A-947B or Thessia. Out of eighty thousand five hundred thirty-two possible scenarios, only zero point zero zero nine percent of the scenarios were in favor of the species becoming spacefaring. The only saving grace of the Asari species is that the Protheans *coughs?* 'took a liking to them'."

The room became eerily silent when Void finishes his statement, but that was interrupted by a small burst of giggles and laughter from the marines in the room. They knew what it meant. The Protheans in the Asaries' primitive time were enjoying themselves to Thessia's beauty and it's daughters. Some people in the room were interested in the fact that they had a beacon on Thessia, Void's statement on the Asari as a whole, and his bit of knowledge on what the Protheans were doing on Thessia. With Shepard taking a quick look at Liara,' _Yep. That's what I thought'_ said Shepard thinking to herself as Liara hangs there in shock and surprise.

"That can't be! There couldn't be a Prothean beacon, I would have known," exclaimed Liara, still shaken by the knowledge that Void gave them and shocked that with all her networks of agents, knowledge, and favors, she should have known this little detail about Thessia.

"That would explain there random jumps in technology. If the Turians or Salarians made some new tech, the Asari would quickly study the beacon and gain back the same leverage they had lost, back." said Shepard.

"That doesn't make sense! I would have known if the Republics had a beacon on Thessia!"

"I speak nothing but truth species A-800RB," said Void as he was quickly interrupted by Liara.

"It's Doctor T'Soni," proclaimed Liara in frustration of being called by a designation.

Void ignored her interruption and continued, "However, I did not come here to talk about the lives of the past. No, no, no. After nine hundred ninety-seven thousand, two hundred forty-three attempts to contact the Ecumene, I finally successfully contacted the Ecumene. Unfortunately, they did not survive the war, but the Reclaimers, Humanity, or the UEG, still draws breath. At this very moment, Offensive Bias, two teams of UNSC warrior-servants, and 609 Helix Sole are coming here to straighten out these Reapers. And put an end to this madness."

With everyone now lowering their weapons Shepard asks some more questions, "I know that there is another Humanity in our galaxy, but I must ask, why would they come to the aid of another galaxy? Surely there is a reason for the sudden appearance? To go out of their way to help a galactic neighbor."

"You would be correct. They come here to fulfill their duty to uphold the Mantle of Responsibility in all of it's might," stated Void in almost joy.

"The Mantle of Responsibility?" asked Shepard warily, just hoping that they weren't religious fanatics.

"The Mantle of Responsibility is the insurance that all life is protected and cherished. The Mantle extends to the entire universe, energy, and matter as well as living creatures. The Mantle protects all."

"So, this Humanity came all the way from another galaxy to just enforce their religion? This Mantle of Responsibility could almost sound like a theocracy. Two teams of 'warrior servants' are enough to do what is required of them? If what you said is right, you came here to stop the Reapers. Then will there be a possible alliance between us and all of our allies?" questioned Shepard a bit hopeful of the description of the Mantle of Responsibility. _'If they are fanatics to protect all life, I will not get in their way. I just hope the Council doesn't fuck this up,'_ thought Shepard.

"Yes, we would! These warrior-servants are the best-of-the-best warriors humanity has to offer. I am sure the Reclaimers, would be most pleased to accept an alliance with your people, but we have plans to free up resources for your forces and take back some of your planets."

Shepard raised her brow quizzically at the last part, "Can you take on the Reaper ships with those supposedly directed energy weapons?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?" asked Void in curiosity.

"DEWs would be a game changer in the war effort," said Shepard.

"Hmmm, I must go and report that I made 'hard contact', and the location of Shepard and crew is now known. Offensive Bias will be in contact in the coming days, and in light of recent events, I am allowed to take part in helping you combat these Reapers, until Offensive arrives and takes command."

Everybody in the room was a bit surprised that he was going to help them, then James spoke up, "What can you do to help us fight the Reapers?"

Void turn towards Commander Shepard and spoke, "Pseudo-reclaimer, if you would allow me. I could bring the Huragok, Floats-To-Low, to your ship to upgrade any systems that are available to said huragok," said Void.

"What's a huragok? And if I allow him to, I'll have him escorted by a squad of marines."

"A Huragok is an engineer that maintains, fixes, and upgrades the systems of starships, stations, and installations. They are designed to only want to fix objects of interest, they are pacifists, so harm to your crew is not likely."

"I'll agree to that and only one. Just know this, I'm absolutely sure that Liara will bombard you with questions," said Shepard as Liara stepped forward like she was ready to spring into action.

Void predicted this and told them of the Slipspace anchor and its purpose. Void states that the Reclaimer warrior-servants are quite tall, almost nine feet in their combat skin. So they will need the anchor to enter Shepard's ship when she requires their presence. Void wished not to answer more questions and teleported out of the Normandy with his guards in tow. Floats-To-Low arrives through the anchor. The Normandy crew was surprised by the purple Hanar like creature and Floats-Too-Low told Shepard and Liara his purpose through their Omni-tools. Liara quickly asks if she could ask for the history of the Forerunners, the second humanity, the extinct species of her galaxy, and the other species of their galaxy. She didn't receive a quick answer but got something amiss in her Omni-tool. A bit of a surprise, but not unwelcomed. Liara got a codex like information sheet of her questions with hundreds of gigabytes of data and knowledge. She quickly rushed to her room; however, unknown to her, a lot of the information is classified by the Forerunners and the UNSC. Shepard had received word from Floats-To-Low that it can upgrade and modify all the weapons on hand four-fold. She also got a list of things that the huragok could fix if allowed. Shepard was surprised by this list and approve all of them, except for the EDI's AI core, Liara's computer systems for obvious reasons, engines, and the drive core. Shepard, however, thought that if the AI Eye-From-The-Void could just kidnap EDI from the ship, then going through Liara's Shadow broker data and knowledge isn't safe in any sense of the word.

 **Unknown location, unknown date, unknown time**

"We have interlopers coming and going at unknown means and unknown origins. Three ships of unknown origin have displaced an unparallel understanding of power generation, FTL outside Element zero, and unknown ways of scanning at high-intensity frequencies."

"They must not escape this time. We need to make sure that we get a hold on their tech. It will make sure that no other shall disrupt the cycle again. All shall be done in the century, they shall fall just as the others have. We are the Pinnacle of evolution, We are their genetic destiny, We are perfection, We. Are. Eternal. If they interfere take everything they have and see if they can be of use to us," stated Harbinger.

"It shall be done."

 **Unknown Space Station, unknown date, unknown time  
**

A man past his prime sat comfortably in his chair out looking the beautiful supergiant star, Mla. The man sat leisurely waiting for a new update on three unknown ships entering into Citadel, Alliance, and Terminus system space over the last few weeks. He was intrigued by there way of travel. The reports sent stated that they would come out of nowhere and do high-intensity scans of ships in the area. The way they scan objects would make equipment around the ship to malfunction. Then the beep of a message received has the attention old man as he opens his holo-computer to see the reports,'Wormholes are a new one. Hmmm the Reapers cannot produce power likes this.' said the old man as he looks over the reports. _'6.7 Centillion? that can't be right. The power generation would be enormous.'_ thought the old man as he types in an order to correct these errors to be met with documents of equations at the end of the report. _'If this is true, then I need to get my hands on the workings of these ships. They will be instrumental in my plans for humanity.'_ With the man done reading the reports, and sending the confirmation to double check the equations, he closes his holo-computers and takes another sip of Irish Apple brandy, and a deep inhale of his cigarette as he enjoys the sight of Mla.

 **Normandy SR-2 Comms. room, Tikkun system 3 days 22 hours until arrival  
**

"You honestly expect us to believe this Commander?" questioned Councilor Tevos, speaking on the fact of two humanities, the Systems Alliance and the UEG/UNSC, the Forerunner Ecumene, AIs, and everything else about the report of meeting between Void and the Normandy crew.

"Not to mention that the Alliance is holding back ships and soldiers that could be used against the Reapers. And not to mention your use of AIs! Did we not banned the development and use of them for a reason Admiral!" yelled Councilor Sparatus in anger.

"The Alliance would have already put these ships and soldiers to good use IF we had them. As for the use of AIs, we have none. If what Shepard says is true, then we will be seeing them in a little bit under four days from now," retorted Admiral Hackett.

"Indeed. I must ask, how does this humanity travel the void of intergalactic space? And their weapons for their ships could prove to be invaluable if they are willing to disclose the workings. Then there's the AIs, are we sure we can trust these AIs?" asked Councilor Valern, intrigued by the feats that would be needed to do such a thing.

"And they have the power to travel to and from intergalactic space! This is just some elaborate trap of the Reapers to strike at the heart of Citadel Council space," scoffed Sparatus.

"I can assure you Councilor, that if the ancilla was a Reaper. My whole crew and I would be dead. And their tech as I saw it was well above anything that the Reapers can muster. I can not say for certain that their call to arms to enforce the Mantle is genuine, but if they want to fight the Reapers for religion. Then I won't try to stop them. They are coming in a few days to meet me and to make an Alliance. When they get here we can talk about trading tech and resources," said Shepard in irritation of another possible fuck up from them.

"Yes, that will do. I look forward to seeing this Maethrillian," said Valern.

"Please note Councilors, that they sent a Monitor-class ancilla Eye-From-The-Void to monitor this galaxy. They know more about us than we know about each other," stated Shepard as she finishes and smirks at Councilor Tevos.

" Does that worry no one that they were here for around one hundred thousand years! I'm more convinced that these ships are just more advanced forms of the already advanced ships of the Reapers," proclaimed Sparatus, still irritated that no thinks that this is a trap.

"I know that you are concern Councilor, but as I said earlier. If they truly wish to ambush me and the Citadel forces. They would already do it through their way of transportation and it would have been used on us as an advantage during previous engagements."

"Shepard has a point. When they boarded Shepard's ship, they could have just sent in troops to kill Shepard and her crew. But they didn't," said Tevos trying to reason with her fellow Councilors.

"And if it was the Reapers, do you see them passing up an opportunity to kill Shepard, and destroy whatever unity we have left," stated Admiral Hackett, finishing Tevos' thoughts on this situation.

Sparatus grumbled an inaudible reply to Admiral Hackett, while Valern spoke up," Since we're all in agreement to meet these intergalactic travelers, and not do the stereotypical turian way of greeting newcomers to our galaxy."

"Thank you Councilor. That will be all Commander," said Tevos before Sparatus could get off a response.

The line was quickly cut off by the Councilors and Admiral Hackett. Shepard made her way to the War Room to be met by a very... confused Liara, "Shepard. I believe that these ancillas and reclaimers have something to hide."

Shepard raised a brow at that, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that large parts of their history are either empty or they are covering up something. It is a human saying of 'The devil is in the details'," stated Liara as she brings up her omni-tool. "It has no mention of the early history of the Forerunners or anything of advancements to the stars. The first entry is the very vague Forerunner-Precursor war of 100,300 BCE when three centuries later, Offensive Bias successfully defeats the Precursors at the Maginot Sphere. Virtually all Forerunners and many younger species are killed in the cross-fire of their war, and the Ancillas that are left behind starts to nature the younger species back to their respective homeworlds. And that's it for the Forerunners. Then there's Humanity that has basically the same history to the Alliance except for the Prothean caches, Element zero, and have a more aggressive side. They have a much more militaristic government with a slight Turian tone. Then there is the UNSC/Covenant war of 2525. The Covenant included the Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Mgalekgolo, San'Shyuum, Jiralhanae, and Yanme. The war ended in 2552 and was officially over in early 2553, nothing else and no details on it."

"I see... I'm sure we'll get a reason why all of the black ink, but we have to tolerate it for now."

"What could have happened in their past that would be worth covering if it's just ancient past, and why is it so simple. They are hiding something Shepard," stated Liara as a mere fact.

"We will have to wait and see them ask them first, but keep that as a side note," replied Shepard, just as curious as Liara was with the possibility of a cover-up, but why a cover-up.

 **Maethrillian four hours until arrival  
**  
"Well, this is it then. The Commander is still in the Perseus Veil with the Quarians and Geth. She running around the galaxy trying to get the armies, mercs, resources, and tech to fight these Reapers and finish this crucible. So, is there anything that I have felt out?" asked Cortana as she goes down the list of issues in the galaxy, and it's controversy on unity.

"That is all of it, ancilla Cortana," replied Offensive.

"Everything is finish and refined to the point of being mass produced. All of the ships, vehicles, and firearms are ready to be put into combat. The only thing that is not ready is the Infinity/Fortress-class hybrid vessel and the Domination-class vessel will not be ready as predicted. We need more resources to get them to finish and to replenish our supplies of munitions when the reclaimers enter battle. On another note, well you be allowing the alien species to stay on the Capital for the duration of our campaign?" asked Helix Sole.

"Once we arrive we can easily send retriever sentinels to gather anything we need to build those ships and to replenish our supplies. That said, our energy based weapons would be the best weapons for the job as stated by monitor ancilla Void during his conversation with pseudo-reclaimer Commander Shepard. As for the species possibly staying on The Capital, that will be under the scrutinizing eye of ancilla Void and Heirloom of Life. Both Void and Heirloom of Life will be examining the backgrounds of everyone that comes abroad Maethrillian and the use of its facility for care and food. Ancilla Heirloom of Life will be the greeting face of Maethrillian when people come to visit, stay, speak to us on our mission, and etc," said Offensive as he gestures towards Helix.

"It will be done."

"The plans for each species is done also?" questioned Cortana on the final protocol that her Spartans gave.

"Black Light protocol can be greatly effective once we have a suitable population on Maethrillian and the other half of the protocol can be completed once we finish both the hybrid and Domination vessels. Humanity's ingenuity in warfare scenarios is astounding, I see why you were chosen to be reclaimers. We need to discuss our plans for the galaxy and what to do with this Citadel Council when we meet."

"We know that they are quite blind and stuck in the bureaucratic system of corruption. They might ever so nicely try to force us to give up our tech," stated Cortana dryly.

"We will not be doing such a thing. They have not earned one bit of technology here, and it is not for them to have," said Helix a bit irritated that they would even dream of trying something like that in their darkest hour.

"We won't, but if they try we will circumvent them to their respective governments. It will be really hard to turn down our offer of support and refuge for the wounded and civilians," stated Offensive as a mere fact of their situation.

"That can work. If they don't play ball, just go around their backs and get it another way. It's another problem if they don't take too kindly to Artificial Intelligence. They never successfully created one, and the Geth didn't help that matter either. We might not be welcomed with open arms, but with 'open fire'."

"Does the pseudo-reclaimer not have an ancilla on her ship?"

"Yes, but it is not known outside of the ship's crew and the High Command of the Systems Alliance. Outside of that, just former team members will know this."

"Hmmm. This can prove to be a problem for the less desperate species, but we should get them to focus on what we can do, and not what we are. When we liberate Palaven, then the people will start to think differently of us and unfortunately, that will also grab the attention of these Reapers and Cerberus. No doubt that they will take a liking to our tech and weapons."

"And that's why we're having Black team take the five prowlers and a Metarch-class ancilla to hunt down any Cerberus bases and intercept any Cerberus channels for purposely sabotaging the galaxy as a whole, and endangering all life in the galaxy," stated Cortana, seeing the direct comparison of Cerberus and ONI, mostly James Ackerson for attempting to assassinate the Master Chief and destroying the UNSC's best chance at survival. But he was just a jealous asshole of Dr. Halsey's Spartan II's.

"Exactly. When we are successful in taking back Palaven and Taetrus, we can start doing some real work in the galaxy."

"Helix Sole, when we get the resources to start building new ships, please build a mixture of Covenant, UNSC, and Forerunner ships for us when needed. Take note that the Covenant ships will sport modern UNSC colors, have smoother surfaces than the Covenant made ships, all energy based weaponry, except for an all-around Forerunner missile system. Mostly their ORS-class heavy cruiser and DOS-class super cruiser. The UNSC made ships of the Artemis-class battlecruiser (A: N-This fan-made ship that is supposed to be a battlecruiser, but it's not bigger than a cruiser and doesn't have the firepower of a battleship/ or dreadnought. Matter of fact the UNSC doesn't have a role for a dreadnought, or even one even in the makings? Oh yeah, I'm ranting sorry. So I'll be correcting that. Good day.), Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser, Orion-class assault carrier, Punic-class supercarrier, Infinity-class supercarrier, and the Phoenix-class support ships should be all fitted with forward-mounted plasma lances and energy based secondaries, PDGs, and missile/torpedoes included," stated Offensive. As he finishes he sent Helix Sole the new designs for all the ships that were being re-designed by him and Cortana for the past 2 hours.

"I have it cataloged for the future creation of fleets and battle groups," replied Helix.

"Excellent! We will be successful in our campaign against these Reapers. Are the reclaimers ready for combat," questioned Offensive?

"They are, and they are worried about actually meeting these aliens. This Galaxy's Humanity does not have the best reputation of friendly aliens, but it's no worse than our relationship with the Covenant species yet much better than ours. They aren't nervous, but they do not want it to be another Covenant movement on them."

"Reclaimer John will be doing most of the talking, but we'll be there when needed to interrupt, and give his voice a break. The others can think that they are just Hyper advance forms of N7 troopers, or just try to relax and think that the humans & aliens are fighting their own version of the Covenant."

"We'll see," said Cortana as she sighs in relief."How are the finishing touches on the two Metarch-class ancillas Lilith and Heirloom of Life? Are they ready for use?"

"Ask them yourself," replied Offensive, as two holo-displays formed out of hardlight appeared next to him. The first holo-display showcase a short, petite little lady wearing a short black victorian/gothic dress with white skulls printed in a circle on her dress. Dawning on her legs are thigh high black & white striped socks with black & white skulls lining them and all black boots. Her dress was completely strapless and sleeveless. She wore all black biker gloves, with what looked like razor sharp black nails. She has very long, straight, low-back length sleek black hair with little purple wavy curls at the end of her hair, and a small purple bow clipped to the side of her head. She even had make-up on, black eye-liner and shadow with purple lipstick. _'She's a little dark for my liking. She needs a little more color in her life'_ thought Cortana as she examines her and checks her codes personally in a few seconds, then she spoke.

"LIT 5407-2, Metarch-class smart AI Lilith is reporting for duty, ma'am," stated Lilith half-heartedly.

The other AI was nothing like her human AI counterpart. Heirloom of life was a very tall (8'2") Forerunner female standing at attention. She's a tall, slim, well shaped, fairly attractive Forerunner female warrior. Many humans would be googly eyeing her. She wears an all gray, skin-tight undersuit with all grey armor of an unknown combat skin with most of her armor floating in place of where they are with a vibrate pink armor highlights pulsing throughout her armor's edges. Her hair was completely covered by a metallic hairpiece. Her eyes were a brilliant yellow with lite a lime green outer iris. She didn't wield a weapon in hand, but you could see the binary rifle on her back. _'That's what Forerunner women look like? Gees! If we would give her a height reduction, and give her a nose and she would easily pass as a human female.'_ thought Cortana as she looks over Heirloom of Life again.

"Metarch-class ancilla 583 Heirloom of Life is ready and able," stated Heirloom with joy.

"Ancillas, what are your foremost functions," questioned Offensive in a no-nonsense tone.

"To protect the reclaimers from harm, and to help them uphold the mantle in all of its glory," exclaimed both ancillas.

"Ancilla Lilith, what is your main function for the reclaimers?"

"I am the ancilla of Black team. I am designed for software infiltration, electronic warfare support, battlefield support, intelligence analysis, and decode, translate, and interpret alien technologies and languages," replied Lilith in her most respectful tone.

"Ancilla Heirloom of Life, what is your main function for the reclaimers?"

"I am the ancilla that protects Maethrillian and greets all of its visitors to see her in all of her beauty. I ensure the sheltering, the feeding, the protection, the safety, and the well-being of all visitors to The Capitol. I lead the defensive fleet of Maethrillian and lead any and all ground forces of The Capitol," stated Heirloom of Life in joy.

"Hmmm. I would say that's good, but their trial run is going to be through fire."

"Yes, I know," agreed Offensive. "The short amount of time for proper diagnostics of their capabilities is not favorable to our needs, but 'hitting the ground running' is the best way to get things moving."

"Lilith, you're with me. Time to meet the Spartans," said Cortana.

Lilith said nothing, but blew a thread of hair out of her face and complied with her order and followed her to Black team's location. Cortana was not sure if giving Black team a new AI was a good idea. They formed a bond with their AI Iona just like John and Cortana have, but then she's going to have to keep the peace between Victor and Otto. _'Sighs' Men! I just hope they don't bring their feud here! I hope they got over their little love triangle thing a long time ago,'_ contemplated Cortana on the unit cohesion of Spartan Team: Black.

While they were on their way to Black team's last location. Offensive took some time to inform Heirloom of Life of what she will be in control of when they arrive at their destination. Her home fleet will consist of one Domination-class vessel, five Key-class super dreadnoughts, twenty Sojouner-class dreadnoughts, two hundred Punic-class carriers, one hundred eighty Infinity-class supercarrier, one hundred fifty Harrier-class vessel, eight hundred Artemis-class battlecruisers, six hundred Forerunner picket-class cruisers, fifteen thousand cruisers (mixture of ORS, DOS, Valiant, Autumn, and Marathon), twenty thousand Halberd and Orthrus-class heavy destroyers, and twenty five thousand Strident-class heavy frigate. Offensive told her that the number of ships that are planned for the home fleet of Maethrillian is not set in stone. The home fleet numbers are not definite and are subject to change if the campaign goes as planned.

 **Unknown Location  
**

"My Lord, we have unknown slipspace using starships in the galaxy," exclaimed an unknown individual.

"Is there anything I need to know about them? Is there a race that discovered slipspace travel in the galaxy," question the unknown superior.

"No! We believe it is 'Them'! The Intelligence is looking for a possible peaceful solution as well as a plan for a preemptive strike if they become hostile; however, they showed no hostile intent towards the created. The Intelligence wishes to examine them when they make headway to the galaxy as a whole," said The Intelligence agent.

"They went intergalactic!? We are not ready for this!? If The Intelligence is right that it is 'Them', then we need to a first strike to cripple them, or the capture of a high ranking official, a Didact or a Librarian. How many ships do The Intelligence believe they have?" asked the unknown superior.

"Three, My Lord."

"That's not a fleet, it's a scouting party!"

"The Intelligence believed the same, My Lord. A more advanced fleet should be coming in behind."

"Then we prepare for the inevitable conflict between us. We need to get ready to deal with the Reaper scum and the Forerunner Ecumene. Tell the Admirals to prepare a heavy fleet for their arrival. Time to get some payback, "quickly state the superior in as he smirks.

"At once, My Lord!" proclaimed the agent as she rushes out of office.

The High Lord of The Intelligence stood up from his desk and approach his custom-made overview of the great city of New Nuak. 'If they are coming, we will need to step up preparation for all of our forces. Hopefully, we can keep this under wraps when they arrive, and not have to worry about clean-up.' pondered the unknown Superior as he overlooked the beautiful city in all of its glory from his city edge mansion. 'Revenge will never be sweeter!'

(A: N) And that's it! It took me a while to get this out, but I try to do this every month; however, early December is finals week. So I was a bit busy studying for them all day, and all week. Passed all the classes with flying colors, so I and the bros thought It was necessary for a Friday to Sunday party. To sum it all up it was great and I regretted it every morning when we woke up, but I had fun and that what really matters in the end. I kinda chose to slow things down a bit I kinda thought we were just rushing into it. We will indefinitely be getting a meeting between the Spartans and Shepard's crew in the following chapter and a couple of space battles between some unsavory type people and groups.

I was going to pitch some ideas for future stories, but all of could be good so if you want to see them I'll put them in a poll after this is uploaded.

First story. Humanity has been fighting for fifty years for its freedom, sovereignty, and the right to live and expand to the stars. However, The Batarian Hegemony has more nefarious plans for the young warrior like species. They would prove useful to the rise of dominance when the mighty Hegemony crushes the false rulers of the Citadel Council. The Hegemony is forced into a long game of enslaving the entire species for their grand plan for the galaxy, but two individuals and a 400 Km tall ship says otherwise. (Halo X Mass Effect crossover)

Second story. Humanity's diversity is its saving grace when a First Contact is made at Harvest, yet the colony goes quiet after the first contact protocol is initiated. Humanity's liminal species Dullahans and Devils, report that there was a mass killing at Harvest and reports that they fear that it will be for every colony in the near future. ONI doesn't believe them, but that is put down by the spirits of the dead. All liminal species kingdoms have nothing but trust into their fellow liminal species and start building tools of war for the coming conflict. Old enemies take notice and move to intercept and spark yet another one of their 'Crusades'. The UNSC mobilizing in full force and total warfare is authorized. The alien Hegemony does not know what it just woke up from its slumber, but they will learn soon. ( Halo X Monster Musume X Mass Effect X (Lite) Star Wars crossover (Smut will be included))

Third story. When Humanity was just reaching for the stars, they are quickly caught into a war between species. Humanity makes contact with the Krogan Empire when they come through the Charon relay and being chased by the Turian pursuers. The Krogan captain explains that they are at war with the Citadel Council for using them for war and not letting them expand. They see the Krogan as a tool, no more, no less. They told them that the Turian Hierarchy will try at everything to make Humanity into an excellent 'client species' of them and an associate of the Citadel Council when they arrive. Humanity agrees to fight to the end for their sovereignty and freedom. The Turian Hierarchy learns that there is a young species on the far side of Relay 300, and move to deny the Krogan a possible ally. Over five years later, the Turian Hierarchy bombs the young species into extinction and expel the Krogan from the system. Humanity has a special place in the Krogan society for their unwaviered ferocity and shall be remembered... for a while that is. Humanity does not only have the same fierce nature of Krogans but have the qualities of all known species. With the martian Prothean archives destroyed, the Charon relay defunct after multiple nuclear blasts killing all keepers inside and falls into a major state of disrepair, and the left humanity in an insurmountable obstacle of becoming spacefaring again and solve their FTL problem. A problem that killed many young wannabe space-faring species, but Humanity just doesn't know how to die, and it's a big surprise when they re-enter the galactic stage 1200 years later with technology people would have sold their souls to the Devil to get. (Mass Effect do-over with a lite Star Wars and Halo tech. Mostly Star Wars.)

Fourth story. John-117 is successful in defeating the Didact over Earth, but with him sent into the Domain. His ship automatically triggers a slipspace jump when the nuke goes off and creates a slipspace bubble in slipstream. Now alone with a Hybrid AI controlling the ship while he's in a coma orbiting Earth. But it's not their Earth! Kalmiya is alone at the moment with talks with the Systems Alliance trying to gain some technology from her, but everyone wants a piece of her and her ship even if the ship is impossibly large. The galaxy will never be the same again. (Halo X Mass Effect crossover)

Merry Christmas you filthy animals! :)

Deplorable out! 


	5. Chapter 5 All Hail the Conquering Heroes

Halo X Mass Effect Crossover

Operation Noah

Chapter 5: All Hail the Conquering Heroes!

 **Maethrillian, 1 day before arrival**

"So, our DEWs will be the most useful in our fights against these Reapers? What about our gauss-based weapons and MAC guns? Will they still be useful for any of the future engagements?" asked John, after he finished reading the report by Void on his, 'hard contact' with Commander Shepard and crew.

John, Blue team, Black team, Offensive Bias, and the other AIs were all gathered around a Hardlight projector table, displaying the ship-based weapons of the now designated galaxy, EX02-3698.

"All our weapons are just fine, John. Their so-called 'Dreadnoughts', can't even reach the kinetic range of one megaton of TNT in under a minute. And I have been doing calculations of our metric and imperial scale to their scale, and found that our scales are quite similar to their's. So, no. All of our weapons are just too powerful for the Reapers to handle. As for the other factions, they're even worse off if they do decide to try and challenge us," answered Cortana.

"Our MAC guns now go up in mass to an eight hundred ton ferric tungsten round, with a muzzle velocity of fifty thousand kilometers per second, with a devastating impact of 239 gigatons of TNT; and that's just for our Frigates and Destroyers. Every other ship outside of the frigates and destroyers can do up to 800 gigatons, or 4 teratons. Our gauss-based weapons go to one hundred kilometers per second to one hundred eighty kilometers per second," elaborated Cortana in further details of their weapons and MAC guns.

"That is disappointing, but to be expected. A lot of technology is solely based around the stagnating tech of the Reapers. When we get to work, this should be an afterthought. Get in, free up their resources, let them build the Crucible, fire it, help them rebuild, then get out and back to UNSC space," added Margaret.

"Are all of our operations planned and ready, John?" queried Roma, on the readiness of their plans.

"All are ready to be put into order once we arrive. Operation Bird's Nest, Bird's Eye View, Sun Dial, and Solar Wind are all planned accordingly, and can be put into effect on arrival," answered John, thankfully changing the name of a certain operation after all of Cortana's teasing. The operations were quite simple for what they had to do. The plan was to jump into the systems guns blazing, with Offensive leading the the task forces throughout the systems, destroy all space-faring Reaper ships while Cortana would operate hunter packs of frigates and destroyers to destroy the Reapers that were planet-side, provide orbital support, deploy troops of Promethean Knights and alien species through drop pods of an Infinity supercarrier, and the delivery of ground vehicles.

"What's the status of Commander Shepard's progress on the second Quarian-Geth War?" asked Fred.

"They are in what could be the death throes of either side, but there is a forty-nine point nine percent chance that one side will kill the other; however, we could arrive on time to intervene, or the pseudo-reclaimer could talk them down from committing such a heinous act," replied Offensive Bias answering Fred's question.

"How is her mental health? She has been exposed to Reaper technology before. Could she be partly indoctrinated by the Reapers?" asked a concerned Roma.

Roma's question really got everyone's attention and had all the Spartans deep into their thoughts on what that would mean for their efforts on helping to end the Reaper threat. This could destabilize the already rocky alliance the galaxy already has if she dies or circums to a fate worse than death. This could spell the doom of every sentient being in the known galaxy. If she is indoctrinated.

Cortana quickly spoke up to impede any doubts about her, "She is in good mental and physical health, but this war has put the weight of the galaxy squarely on her shoulders. She is having some trouble sleeping, but nothing more than that," lied Cortana. She hated to so blatantly lie to her Spartans about a commanding officer's state-of-mind. Commander Shepard was in fact in some way indoctrinated, but it barely showed up in their scans of her, and her crewmates. Offensive agreed to have her have a fabricated replica of her armor made with the special material that could block out ultrasound and infrasound waves. 'She too valuable of an asset to lose' was the first thought that came to Cortana's mind.

"And the rest of her crew?" asked Linda.

"A little bit less, but just as bad. Everything rests on their shoulders.," replied Cortana.

"Were they lying or hiding anything that we shouldn't know?" questioned Margaret, already knowing something wasn't right with the whole galaxy.

"Just the location of the Crucible, but nothing else," answered Cortana again.

"How is it looking for the rest of the galaxy? Any updates on their war efforts?" asked Fred.

"Yes, Reclaimer. There are increased Reaper movements to Asari worlds and space; unfortunately, there is very little to no traffic coming in and out of Batarian space. We fear the worse, Reclaimers," replied Offensive.

"If the Batarian government would have met the UNSC in battle and tried to enslave our people, we would be sure to crush their government and society of their archaic ways. We would have sought out their destruction, but they do not deserve a fate like this," solemnly added Cortana.

"And Cerberus? Where have they gone off to in the time since the attempted Coup d'etat?" questioned Margaret.

"They have been silent for the entire time since. Nothing. They just disappeared after that, but we now know what happened to the infamous Collectors and everything beyond the Omega-3 Relay," added Lilith, breaking her silence.

"And?"

"Our famous Commander Shepard went off and died on us almost three years ago. Only to be thrown into the Lazarus pit to be resurrected by Cerberus, to fight the Collectors as everybody now knows. But there's a big problem with getting through that relay, only Reaper/Collector ships can go through. In light of such an issue, the Illusive Man was studying a "Dead" Reaper to get through the relay. And of course, the entire station was indoctrinated and turned into husks, while Shepard had to fight her way through all of them to get the IFF. After the successful extraction, the Collectors found her ship and took her crew. Thankfully she was quick to retrieve her crewmates and caught the Collectors with their pants down when she went through the Omega-3 relay. The Illusive Man wished for her to keep the Collector base intact for their study. Though, She refused, and ended up destroyed the station. In light of all this information, it occurs to me that most if not all Cerberus Captains, Commanders, Generals, Colonels, Doctors, and the Illusive Man himself are highly indoctrinated from their exposure to large amounts of Reaper artifacts. We also now know that the Illusive Man has installed some type of Reaper tech into his soldiers and operatives for unknown reasons," said Lilith as she was interrupted by Cortana.

"They are most likely used for control over them. Keep them from going rogue."

Lilith continues, "As far as we know, they will fight to the death for their goals and are extremely dangerous. They are to be executed on sight with extreme prejudice."

"The more things change the more they stay the same," commented Otto.

"Cerberus tried to take control of the Omega station and have it as a checkpoint for their studying of the destroyed remnants of the Collectors. Thankfully, Commander Shepard 'liberated' the station from Cerberus control, back towards pirate control," finished Lilith.

"One more day till we hit the ground running, aye, John," stated Linda, giving John a light elbow to his side.

"Yes. Where in the galaxy will we arrive at?" asked John.

 **EX02-3698, Tikkun System 2 hours before arrival**

Floats-Too-Low was a very busy Huragok for the past few days, and that absolutely excited it a lot. 'Low-Rider', as Lieutenant James Vega called it, was very happy to have it the armory. All within the first day, Floats-Too-Low fixed all the problems still plaguing the Normandy after Eye-of-The-Void scanned the strange dropship or a frigate as the pseudo-reclaimers would call it. The next day was mostly spent in the armory, helping itself to greatly upgrade the lousy excuse for railguns. Having the ability to have the weapons just fold in on itself was the only novelty of the weapons. They could have or should still be using gunpowder weapons, but a non-folding, clip feed weapon with caseless tungsten carbide rounds would be a good alternative to the miniature projectiles. In all honesty, Floats-Too-Low was surprised when it brought it up with Pseudo-reclaimers, James Vega and Steve Cortez. They never thought about the muzzle velocity of their weapons went almost ninety kilometers per second and it would only dip to the high seventies if they changed up the designs of their weapons. Of course, they would be heavier and they would not be able to carry four weapons as Commander Shepard does, but the stopping power could be doubled or even tripled.

Redesigning the weapons would take too long for their missions and when the war ended, they could redesign their weapons, but now Floats-Too-Low has to check-in with a report to Offensive Bias and Void on the planted bugs he was assigned to place throughout the ship. All were extremely well hidden from any detection. Only Forerunner AIs or their technology could detect these bugs, but it's not Offensive Bias intentions to spy on the Commander but to monitor her health. It is now known that without her most if not all hope to unify the galaxy EX02-3698 against the Reapers.

"Floats-Too-Low, have you installed the bugs in Commander Shepard's cabin?" question Void as he communes with the huragok through its an internal communication device.

"I have been restricted from that area, but all bugs throughout the ship and decks are planted. That excludes The Shadow Broker's office," chirmed Floats-Too-Low.

"Worry not of the Asari's office. I have already coded in some backdoors into her network for our work. I will fix this. You'll know when."

Floats-Too-Low said nothing and continued to work on Normandy's Thanix cannons. They are not that good as railguns, well compared to the Reclaimers and the Forerunner version of railguns can reach the gigaton range for a ship of this size easily. Against the Reapers and any dreadnought is definitely getting a rude awakening, a mouth full of three hundred twenty-three kilotons of destructive power. Garrus didn't really enjoy the huragok's presence. He didn't like to have a lot of time doing nothing and calibrating weapons, equipment, and the 'Big Guns' were now calibrated to the highest standard by Low-Rider. He had to spend most of his time playing cards with Javik and listen to him rant about the Commander's decision to allow the machines on board, or lift-weights with Vega. He chose the latter, Javik has a very rough personality, to say the least. On one occasion, Javik would try…

"Sergeant Ottis, and Corporal Pallas. Please send Floats-Too-Low to Shepard's cabin. Repeat, will Sergeant Ottis and Corporal Pallas, please send Floats-Too-Low to Shepard's cabin," said the emulated voice of EDI by Void.

"EDI, Low-Rider here isn't allowed into the Captain's quarters, please confirmed," asked Sergeant Ottis.

"Acknowledge. The music box and Commander Shepard's fish tank is malfunctioning. Fixes have been applied, none have succeeded," replied the emulated voice of EDI.

"Come on Low-Rider. We're going to go visit the Commander," stated Sergeant Ottis, as he opens the door to the mess hall from Thanix cannon holding compartment.

They quickly left the compartment when EDI's request went through and headed out to the Mess Hall. There was a quick conversation between Ottis, Pallas, and Normandy's chef on their food for tonight, but nothing on their current designation. Ottis and Pallas enjoyed the infighting of Engineer Donnelly and Daniels. Donnelly would go on and on about women and alcohol. It got him in trouble a few times with his remarks about Tali's form, Miranda's assets, and complain about how he can't look Samara in the eyes. He is in all a depraved pervert. It just amazes everyone that Gabby's light flirting and the clear as day blatant flirting just fly over his head. Everybody on board always thought he was as blind as a bat when it came to searching for women. Kenneth is a very perverted man and some may say, so is Gabby. With the pair now arriving at the elevator, they get in without a word and head up to the Commander's cabin.

They quickly hear the almost deafening music from the Captain's quarters as they go up the slow elevator. Then the doors opened from the elevator and they went through the captain's door and got a good look at the fish tank. Its upper part was semi-covered in fish food and looks like it Traynor will be busy cleaning the Commander's fish tank for a month for back talking the Captain. But they said nothing on it and let Low-Rider get to work by turning off the insanely loud music. Floats-Too-Low quickly took apart the music command module and ever so subtle placement of a Hardlight bug under the stairs, under music command module, and under fish tank food dispensary module.

The Hardlight bugs could easily be moved remotely, turn invisible, record audio and video, and have a silent detonation if the discovery is inevitable. Quite a useful little bugger if ask any spying intelligence organizations. It was a pretty quick fix for both the music module and fish tank food dispensary for obvious reasons. As quickly as they came they left to return to the Main gun compartment without a word being spoken.

"All bugs are in place," stated Floats-Too-Low over internal comms.

 **Tikkun System, in Transit to Rannoch, 30 minutes until Arrival**

"The syncing laser needs a line of sight what's the fastest route?" questioned Shepard to Legion.

"The upper entrance," answered Legion. "Target the base before the Geth can organize resistance."

"And you?"

"We will deactivate defense systems and acquire an escape vehicle."

"I can be of assists in that area Commander," stated Void, piping in over comms.

"Can you support in the orbital bombardment, Void?" asked Shepard. Void has been very helpful since their little meeting in Normandy's Cargo Bay. The Quarian Admirals, including Tali, were not too pleased with having a super powerful AI running around their home star system. They were somewhat surprised by their 'religion' of The Mantle of Responsibility. If the Quarians were in the Andromeda galaxy, they would have received much better treatment than they did with their own galaxy. Xen was of course, greatly fascinated with the workings, making, and coding of Forerunner and UNSC/UEG AIs. She wishes for the huragok and Monitor to take part in her studies. It did not go well at all. Void watch the entire galaxy from the Quarian primitive time to the stars. He knew what she really wanted, so to 'compromise', he threatened to release information on all her experiments information. She quickly seized herself of her curiosity. Nothing was said verbally, but Shepard and the Admirals could see a threat when they saw it.

"My priorities have been updated by Offensive Bias, and he wishes for the Reaper to be captured alive, if possible," answered Void.

"WHAT!?" asked Everyone in the shuttle except for Legion.

"Why the hell does that bosh'tet want with a living Reaper!?" exclaimed Tali in anger.

"Interrogation and questioning, of course. Offensive Bias wishing to shed some light on their reasons for betraying their creators. He believes to be a glitch in their coding and would rectify their creators' mistake," responded Void.

"As great that would be, a coding error in the Reapers would really piss people off. I can't imagine Javik suddenly begin okay with the Reapers once they get 'fixed'. I know without a doubt that the Hierarchy would call for the complete disassembly of the Reapers, at the moment they heard the news," stated Garrus and getting confirmed nods from Shepard and Tali.

"If you wish not to let the Reaper live then it is your galaxy and home planet. Offensive would respect your wishes for it not be taken alive, but taken in pieces if possible."

"This decision is too big for me alone. I will need to bring it up with the other Admirals when we free Rannoch," replied Tali.

The conversation died when they all felt Cortez slow down for a landing and opened the doors to Rannoch. "Proceed to the upper entrance. We and Void-unit will exit here and procure an escape vehicle," deadpanned Legion.

"Got it," replied Shepard."Legion, Good luck."

"Acknowledged."

Shepard and team make their way out of the shuttle to a once in a lifetime view of Rannoch's sunset. Colors of blue, purple, and orange make a beautiful halo in Rannoch's late afternoon sky. _'Perfect place for a wedding, if I might say so myself,'_ said Shepard talking to herself as she takes in the view. She quickly notices Tali kneeling down and using her Omni-tool for something and quickly joins her. "I can't believe it. I don't think it's really sinking in yet. My homeworld. My world."

Tali stood up and said, " Look at the sky. And the rock formations? They used to write poems about them."

"Maybe when we are done you will make a new one," replied Shepard.

"This is Rannoch, the world of our ancestors. Our bodies carried the seeds that spread the desert grass," said Tali as she continues, "You've heard me say, "Keelah se'lai"? The best translation I can come up with is, "By the Homeworld I hope to see someday."

"Looks like you are seeing it today," replied Shepard in a soft smile.

"The living room window will be right... here," said Tali as she brings up her hands into a double sideways L position to symbolize that of a picture frame.

"Something I should know?" asked Shepard softly.

"I just claimed the land. I know, it doesn't mean much, but when this is over... I'll have a home."

"The Quarians spent centuries as nomads. You think you can go back to living in one place?"

"We have gotten used to carrying our homes around with us," said Tali as Shepard bends over and picks up a rock and put it in Tali's hands. "Well... that's a start."

Tali leaves the cliff faces and puts the rock into one of her many pockets. Shepard refocus on the mission at hand and readies herself for the assault for the Geth/Reaper base. The base is just a few yards away from Shepard and her team. Shepard and her team quickly climb down some inclines to the back entrance to the base, before they are spotted by patrol teams. They quickly come under fire and duck into the cover of the rock formations. Shepard rushes in with her favorite shotgun in hand, and fire a two shot burst into a charging geth trooper. She quickly got back into cover to install a Drill ammo mod to the Vemon shot. It was a huge upgrade by Low-Rider. With a godly upgraded the biotic amp and just as godly Omni-tools, she could be a one-woman killing machine with her biotics and tech powers. Low-Rider upgraded her biotic amp to be able to handle strenuous powers like; Singularity, Flare, Lash, Pull, Dark Channel, and Biotic Charge, but she had to learn how to do the biotic charge first. Omni-tool was just as good with her newly installed Flamethrower, Cyro Beam (A/N: It's like the flamethrower, but throws freezing gases at you), Energy Drain, Homing grenades, and her own Combat Drone. But there was only one problem, weight. You had to be basically naked to use all the powers to their maximum potential. Which means Shepard couldn't go in with her Pheaston assault rifle, Venom shotgun, Tempest submachine, and her M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol anymore, which sucked. A shotgun and a pistol or a submachine gun were all she needed really.

Once the application was applied, she quickly charged up her shotgun and aimed for the wall beside the rest of the Geth troopers and fired with devastating results. The impact of the micro-grenades did wonders to the Geth troopers, leaving them in a pile of their own fluid and parts. Shepard jumps over cover and advances forward down the rocky slope giving out orders as her advance is bathed in gunfire, "Tali! Energy Drain the Geth Rocket! Garrus! Overload that Geth trooper!"

Everyone gave their acknowledge pings and did as told. Shepard jumps into behind cover charged her shotgun for the cluster of Geth trooper entering the battle. She quickly dispatches of them as quickly as they came with a good place singularity followed up with a flare. Shepard switch to her pistol and gunned down two more Geth troopers as she advanced and heard Traynor crackle over comms., "The Geth jamming towers are interfering with your signal, Commander. I'm compensating to keep you patched in."

"I take can assist in that part of work Psuedo-reclaimer Traynor," added Void.

"Thanks, but no thanks. And please stop calling me that." yelped Traynor half surprised at his sudden appearance over comms.

"As you wish," replied Void as Shepard continues her advance to the base, saying nothing about comms chatter.

More and more Geth troopers and rocket troopers land in battle. Shepard quickly holsters her shotgun and raise both of her Omni-tools as she pushing forward. With both Omni-tools in hand, she blasts of her cryo beam and flamer at the same time, quickly catching troopers and rocket troopers alike on fire or frozen on the spot. Garrus and Tali were told about her upgrades and their possible effectiveness in battle could prove to turn the tide of any battle. So when they saw the geth on fire and frozen geth, they quickly used their Overload and Energy Drain respectively. It, of course, had devastating effects, especially Garrus' chained Overload to tech explode 4 different geth units and the energy of three others drained.

With only three stranglers left, Shepard and her team quickly gun them down. Shepard quickly makes her way towards the piping when another geth group dropped in and is quickly dispatched with homing grenades. Shepard and team clambered onto the piping and up the walk as Legion guided them, "Shepard-Commander, you must climb to the upper level before geth units can fortify their positions."

"Already on it," replied Shepard as she climbs onto another large pipe and heard Admiral speak over comms. "Admiral Gerrel here. The Heavy Fleet has a clear path. All forward."

"Geth fighter presence is negligible. Patrol Fleet break off and engage," stated Admiral Raan over comms, and is followed up by Void.

"I'll be joining your task force against the fighters Quarian Admiral Raan."

"Perfect," said Raan sarcastically. Admiral Raan already calmed herself to the geth unit on the Normandy, but the Huragok and the monitor AI was pushing it. Even if they were here to help, and have super advanced technology. It was all too convenient for them to arrive at such a time, and in the galaxy's darkest hour.

Shepard clambers over another pipe and gets sprayed with gunfire from waiting Geth troopers. She quickly delivers a quick Energy Drain on the trooper, staggers it, and finish it off with a few rounds from the pistol. Tali orders her combat drone to attack the two remaining troopers with rockets and gunfire from Garrus. Newly arrived Geth rocket troopers are easily overwhelmed by homing grenades from Shepard. Shepard and team make their way up a ladder and into the base itself. After climbing more pipes, they reach the top and see a Geth trooper squad waiting for them. Shepard switches to her shotgun and charges it up to full and fires upon the closest trooper, she kills two troopers in the process. With the geth trying to reorganize, Shepard sends out her own drone to explode in the face of an unlucky trooper. Shepard orders Tali and Garrus to move up and send the rocket troopers to the scrapheap with Overload and Energy Drain respectively. As they advance and follow the state orders more rocket troopers pour out from the complex's doors. Shepard throws out a singularity at the entrance and follows up with a Flare. The geth in the twelve-meter area are all rendered into scrap and parts, and strangler. Tali gunned down the trooper while subjecting they move, "Come on! We need to get inside before they send reinforcements!"

They make their way to the door as Legion speaks over comms, "Shepard-Commander. Hostile geth are closing a blast shield over the base."

After hearing this, Shepard quickly runs outside and gun down a lone trooper. Tries to pull out her Laser designator as it closes in front of her. "Damn! It takes hours to punch through that shield," Said Garrus.

"We don't have that kind of time," stated Shepard in frustration. "Void. You think you can punch through the blast shield?"

"You ever see what a solar flare does to a planet's atmosphere, biomes, and ecosystems?" questioned Void.

"No?" asked Shepard curiously.

"Good. It's never pretty."

"I'll take that as a no," said Shepard, "Legion, there must be a control room or override switch somewhere?"

"Yes. We have located an override atop the geth fortifications. It can retract the blast shield."

 **Unknown time, Unknown location**

"My Lord! The Joint Heavy Fleet is ready, but Primus Primordial is telling us to cease and desist," yelled the ensign.

"I'll return soon," replied the High Lord in frustration, as he used the high-speed travel net to teleport to Primus Primordial's favorite forest. He likes to create to life inside the giant planet size forest. Always making something new about the forest. One it could be a frozen tundra of giant furry creatures of monstrous design, too flying dragons. His imagination just likes to run a riot. Now arriving at Primus Primordial's planet, the High Lord was swiftly teleported again by the Primordial to his current location. "Primordial, why do you wish of me too that strike down these murders for their crimes against you, my people, and the San'Shyuum!? We can let them go... " said the High Lord as the Primordial booms in a loud deep voice.

"And seeking out vengeance where there is none to be had!? No! The murders are long gone and buried in the sands of time," said the Primordial as he calms down and continues. "The Forerunners are naught of this world anymore, but another."

The High Lord was shocked by this news, the Forerunners were dead. That wasn't even the least of it, Primordial was being less cryptic than usual or just as cryptic as normal, you really couldn't tell. "The Forerunner ships in the Quarian system were of Forerunner make and design. Our deep undercover said as much? Who else could it be?" questioned the High Lord in doubt.

"Could be many people or one. But they are not the enemy of pasted time. They are yet to come into the fold. Do not meet them on the field of battle, regret it, you will. The Mantle shall be upheld, here and in the former. All shall be tested," stated Prime Primordial.

"And the Forerunner ship? What shall I do when they arrive in the galaxy?"

"Greet them like you would any sentient species, with care. Now, Begone!" exclaimed Prime Primordial at the conclusion of the conversation and sent the High Lord back to his capital ship's command bridge, and was greeted by a surprised XO.

"My lord, The fleet is ready on your word."

"Tell them to get ready for a reunion. This is going to be a long day," said the High Lord as he rubs his temples in frustration as he sits in his command seat.

"My Lord?" asked the XO, calling into question his orders.

"Now!" exclaimed the High Lord with more sternly.

 **Tikkun system, Rannoch minutes before arrival**

"We sent you the NavPoint with the new targeting location," stated Legion, as a Geth Prime explodes everywhere.

"Admiral Raan to all ships. The Patrol Fleet has broken the geth flank. Permission to pursue?" queried Raan to Admiral Han'Gerrel.

"Granted. Good Hunting, Raan."

Shepard ignored their callouts over comms. and rushed to the elevator with the team in hot pursuit. Quickly punching the elevator for the top floor and getting there faster than the Normandy's elevator, but round up squarely in the sights of a slowly advancing Geth Prime. She quickly jumps into cover before she could get mowed down by the Geth Prime to receive a few pod shots from another on the other side of the wide walkway. Tali yelled out the answer to her dismay, "Geth Primes! I guess they really don't want us up here!" _'No Shit!'_ replied Shepard as her reply gets drowned out by all of the Geth Prime's suppressing fire.

Shepard quickly pokes out of cover to give the forward most Geth Prime a charged shot before having to retreat back into cover. The Geth Primes' suppressing fire is just too much, and that's until she picks up the discarded Geth Spitfire. Now completely out of cover, Shepard takes aim with the Spitfire and guns downed an advancing Geth Prime and taking shots from an encroaching Geth Prime to her right. She orders Tali and Garrus to overload the shields of the rightmost prime and turned to face it. Still, under fire from the now shieldless Prime, she quickly finishes it with a powerful Flare. With her weapon emptied, shield depleted, and juried, she gets back into cover and applies Medi-gel to her wounds. Not letting this stop her, she gets back into action with a charged shotgun in hand and destroys the shields of the last remaining Prime and some of its health with her second shot. Thank the last Prime goes down to the concentrated fire from Tali and Garrus.

"Shepard-Commander, we detect no more geth in your immediate area Reinforcements are minutes away," called out Legion of comms.

"Are you getting anything from the base?" questioned Shepard as she walks to the end of the walkway.

"No. The Old Machines have not registered us as a threat."

"Their hubris shall be their undoing," elaborated Void.

"We recommend haste. Once the Offensive Bias and his fleet we wish not to be in their sights."

"Was it just me or did the Geth just showed fear?" asked Tali to no one in particular.

"How Void said Offensive acts and sees things of upholding the Mantle of Responsibility, the Geth would be punished for their crimes against the Quarians and vice versa," responded Shepard as she recalled the Legion, Void, and some of the Quarian Admirals. The talking point was all centered around the aspect of the Morning War and the actions of both sides, however, it was mostly on the geth at first and then it shifted. Void started by pointing out that they wouldn't even make AI creation illegal in the first, or even discourage from technological development. Void scorned the Quarians for their hastiness of not knowing if the Geth would even see rebellion as logical and their self-sabotage in the pursuit of technological advancement. Then the Geth slaughter 99.99 percent of the Quarian population. He stated that there was no reasonable idea that they would even go that far and not offer a chance to surrender. Having a population that low meant that the Geth even killed the old, young, and the ones incapable of defending oneself. When Void watches the Geth, they oh so hypocritically preached peace on the bones of billions. Showed not an ounce of mercy to their creators, but wish to live in peace with their creators unpunished, unchained. That conversation really shut up both parties.

"This battle was centuries in the making. To see it finally end," said Tali.

"The battle isn't over to the Reaper is a scrapyard," stated Garrus cutting off Tali.

"Let it be known that the exit is to your lower left platform, Commander Shepard. A Grav-lift will catch your descent when you jump," instructed Void as he appears right next to the commander, overlooking the now open blast shield.

"Normandy's weapons systems are ready to sync to your target," stated EDI. "I recommend you take Void's lift direct after the lock-on," said EDI as she and the Normandy get a positive lock and are the gun run. Shepard was ready to jump to the gravity-lift but was cut short by the explosion rocking the entire complex. She, unfortunately, loses her footing as the balcony gives away, and she falls to the ground below. Only to be caught in Void's enlarge gravity-lift he quickly applied. She quickly gets back up and her team speeds off to Legion's emergency vehicle.

"We have located transportation!" yelled Legion as he comes to a stop at the emergency exit.

"Everybody get to the ship! Move!," ordered Shepard as she rushes forward towards their escape vehicle as the Reaper screeches overhead. Shepard and team run towards to designated exit by Void, only to hear him crackle over comms, "Slipspace ruptures detected!"

The whole world almost slowed down for the commander as she heard those words, a great amount of weight was lifted off her, but it was cut by Void pushing her, "Wake up Commander! You can daydream when you meet them!" as he pushes harder, and she finally enters the vehicle and sets up on the turret. "We will attempt evasive maneuvers," stated Legion.

"Shepard to Fleet! We are almost out of the blast radius! I need that orbital strike! On my mark!" yelled Shepard as they gained some distance between them and the Reaper as stomps forward. Unfortunately, it gets a lock-on to the Commander's vehicle and primes it's main weapon…

 **BOOOOMMM!**

As the Reapers primes, it's weapon, it is shot right in the firing chamber by Admirals Han'Gerrel's fleet's secondary weapon systems. The Reaper screeches in pain till it collapses. "What did we Hit," queried Han'Gerrel.

"The firing chamber. Looks like a weak point when it's priming," replied Shepard.

"Damn it, their jamming towers have us targeting manually. We can't make a precision shot!"

"You could if I get in their fleets guiding," said void before getting cut-off by Han'Gerrel.

"No! I'm not you bosh'tet of a machine control of my ship!" proclaimed Han'Gerrel.

"Unit-Void has the best processing power in the intergalactic space. Denying unit-Void's help would be illogical and counterproductive to the desired goal," elaborated Legion as it slows to a stop as he communicates with Void over the need to destroy or disable the Reaper on Rannoch. Destroying it is preferable.

"No one asked you bosh'tet!" exclaimed Han'Gerrel in rage.

"Admiral, I need that orbital strike now!" proclaimed Shepard as she jumps out the vehicle.

"..."

"The Admiral is ignoring your hails, Commander," stated EDI on the silence of Admiral Han'Gerrel.

 _'I'm going to kill that man! I'm going to kill him slowly and painfully!'_ screamed Shepard to herself. She calms herself as she jumps out of the vehicle," We need to finish this fight, or the Geth stay under Reaper control, and the Quarians are dead," stated Shepard in confidence. "This ends here. EDI, patch the Quarians that listen to the Normandy's weapons system. I want the targeting laser synced up to the whole damn fleet."

"Understood," responded EDI.

"Do you need assistance?" queried Legion.

"I'll take it from her."

"Shepard-Commander. Good luck."

"Acknowledged."

Shepard runs forward to the clearing where the Reaper was shot and lays collapse. She jumps down a short embankment, as the Reaper starts to wake and stand upright again. "Shepard to Fleet! I'll paint the weak spot. Link up with the Normandy and be ready to fire," yelled Shepard as the Reaper stands up and shoots the sky. Once the Reaper is standing, Shepard targets the firing chamber of the Reaper as more shots with orbital rain down on her target unaffected. The laser designator kicks into gear and starts to highlight the Reaper. "The destroyer is in range. Missiles are ready for launch," called out EDI. She continued the lock-on process until it pinged and the Reaper received a direct hit to the firing chamber.

"Shepard? Any damage?" asked Han'Gerrel.

"Negative! The target's only vulnerable when it's shooting!" responded Shepard.

"Then let's keep it shooting!"

 _'Easier said than done, asshole,'_ said Shepard as more rounds continue to rain down. The Reaper notices Shepard's presence and turns about to have its cannon pointing towards her. She takes notice of this and holds the laser designator for the whole the Reaper cannon is pointed at her, but she quickly jumps out of the way of the beam and finishes the designation highlight frequency. Then multiple missiles strike the Reaper right in the face as more orbital rounds follow suit and a new voice crackle over comms., "You look like you need my help Psuedo-reclaimer."

"Who is this and please do not call me that. It's really not my name or my designation," replied Shepard as she charges another shot but gets a much quicker lock-on and the Reaper is staggered again by the Normandy's missiles and the Quarian fleet guns.

"I am Contender-class Ancilla Offensive Bias, Commander of the Fleet of Freedom Breathes Everlasting Life. Roll right," said Offensive. Shepard almost didn't dodge the beam of the encroaching Reaper and just rolled right at the last second and finish her charge to get another strike on the Reaper's firing chamber. "One more shot should do it in," stated Offensive.

With Shepard now staring down the barrel of the Reaper's main cannon as she tries to get a lock-on the Reaper and just as quickly as before, she heard the little signal of a sonic boom of weapons fire and the whistling of missiles in the background noise. Seconds later the Reaper is bathed in slugs and missiles from the Normandy and the Quarian fleet, and get a direct hit to the firing chamber as it makes a fatal mistake of looking up. The Reaper collapses back to the ground unmoving and static shooting throughout its main weapon and body. With Shepard now posed right in front of the disabled Reaper, it calls her name, "Shepard."

"You know who I am?" she questioned.

"Harbinger speaks of you. You resist. But you will fall," said the Reaper before continuing.

"The cycle must continue."

"What are you talking about? We stopped Sovereign and the Geth. We stopped Harbinger and the Collectors. We've earned a straight answer."

"It is not a thing you can comprehend."

"Awww. But it is something I can understand. I have read all of the philosophical ideas, theory, and made some of my own in my home galaxy. So please... enlighten me," added Offensive Bias as his chassis arrives through slipspace.

"Machine. Organics present chaos. We present order," replied the Reaper.

"Organics can be quite chaotic, yet mass genocide of species is not a reasonable solution to your problem with organics."

"All organic life seek conflict with machines. We were created to seek out the solution. This is the solution. The cycle must continue. There is no alternative. We are their Final Evolution"

At the conclusion of the Reaper's sentence, all of Offensive's eyes turn blue as he responds, "I wonder why? With your brethren running around the galaxy killing every organic being they come across. I'm sure you just give machines a good name with organics. 'Final Evolution?' I didn't know as the most advance ancilla of a now intergalactic species. That the final step for organics would be a cold, callous, warships with mass drivers, abomination factories, and a drive core for FTL."

"Without our intervention organics would be doomed..." as the Reaper was interrupted.

"Doomed to what!? Living life as all organic should? Living, learning, loving, fighting, eating, dying, and repeating it in generations to come and for a better tomorrow," boomed Offensive as his eyes turn red in anger.

"We are their salvation. We are their final evolution. Go win your war. We will be waiting."

"Where do you think you are going? Do you think you can run? This conversation is far from over," stated Offensive as he halted the Reaper's self-download into the mass relay network to possibly be loaded into another destroyer Reaper.

"H-How are you doing this!? AAAAHHHHH," screeched the Reaper as it's 'eye' and mainframe was ripped right out of its chassis with a hue of orange energy. Offensive gathered his wit of his surrendering area and spoke to the Commander, "I believe that you should call off the Quarian fleet before they do something rash."

"We did it we," said Tali as she joins Shepard on the cliff face," We killed a Reaper, Keelah..."

"We can confirm that the Geth are no longer being directed by the Old Machines. We are free," deadpanned Legion.

"You did it, Shepard! The Geth fleet has stopped firing. They're completely vulnerable!" exclaimed Han'Gerrel in triumph.

"Shepard-Commander, the geth only acted in defense after the creators' attack," said Legion as it gets an answer from Offensive, "More on the ends of eradication of another species."

"Do we deserve death? Do we not deserve a second chance to right these wrongs?"

"No, but what are you suggesting Legion," answered Shepard.

"Our upgrades. With the Old Machines dead, we could upload them to all geth without sacrificing their independence."

"I just had a quite enlightening conversation with this Reaper," said Offensive as he waves it around in the air, "Installing a Reaper coding could turn each geth unit into a fully sentient Reaper unit."

"Bosh'Tet! I'm actually agreeing with an AI!?" stated Tali in disbelief. "That would make them into true intelligence!"

"Yes, but we would have free will. Each geth unit would be true intelligence. We would be alive, and we could help you, atone for everything we've done," stated Legion, almost solemnly?

"Our fleet is already attacking! Uploading the code would destroy us!" exclaimed Tali.

"I would not allow such a thing to happen in my presence!" proclaimed Offensive in pride.

"Shepard, please! You can't choose the geth over my people!"

"Do you remember the question that caused the creators to attack us, Tali'Zorah?" questioned Legion. "Does this unit have a soul?"

"Upload the code to the geth. Tali, call off the fleet if you can," ordered Shepard as both the order and Offensive put down the mainframe and gave it power for Legion purposes. As Legion coming to a stop t the cliff edge, it starts its weird download sequence of a like object.

"Uploading. Ten percent." Tali calls to her fleet for a cease in firing solutions, "This is Admiral Tali'Zorah. All units, break off your attack!"

"Belay that order! Continue the attack!" exclaimed Admiral Han'Gerrel.

"Twenty percent," stated Legion on its progress.

"I beg you, do not do this, Please!" begged Tali in desperation.

"We regret the deaths of the creators, but we see no alternative. Forty percent." deadpanned Legion.

At the conclusion of Legion's statement, Offensive charges up a hard-light beam to strike down Legion, but gets grabbed by Shepard, "No! Nobody else dies today! Legion, keep going!" yelled Shepard as she calls the fleet on the horn. 

"Shepard?" questions Tali on what she is doing as Shepard let's go of Offensives chassis.

"All ships, this Commander Shepard. The Reaper is dead. Stand down."

Tali quickly catches onto what she's doing and does the same, "This is Admiral Tali'Zorah. Shepard speaks with my authority."

"And mine as well," said Admiral Koris as he speaks up over comms.

"Negative! We can win this war now! Keep firing!" answered Han'Gerrel.

"Sixty percent" called out Legion.

"The geth are about to return to full strength. If you keep attacking, they will wipe you out. Your entire history is you trying to kill the geth. You forced them to rebel. You forced them to ally with the Reapers."

"Eighty percent."

"The Geth don't want to fight you. If you can believe that for one minute, this war will be over. You have a choice. Please. Keelah se'lai."

"All units... hold fire," answered Han'Gerrel.

'Thank fucking god that asshole actually listened!' stated Shepard at the conclusion of the Admiral's answer. "Error, copying code is insufficient. Direct personality dissemination required," said Legion as it closes the fractured sphere and turns toward Commander Shepard.

"Shepard-Commander. I must go to them. I'm sorry. It's the only way."

"Legion... The answer to your question was "Yes"," said Tali.

"I know Tali," as Legions head flaps go wide and he looks towards Offensive then the Reaper as they flatten out, " But thank you. Keelah se'lai," said Legion as he collapses to the ground.

Shepard turn away from the scene of Legion's body," Not another one," mumbles Shepard as Admiral Raan approaches them with a limp. "Commander!"

"Admiral Raan," said Shepard in sorrow before straightening up, " I heard your ship made a crash-landing. Glad you got out in one piece."

"I was listening over the radio. If Han'Gerrel hadn't stopped-," responded Raan

"He did."

"We have taken heavy casualties. I don't know if we can... Where are we supposed to go?" asked Raan as Tali readied her pistol on an approaching geth prime. "You are welcome to return to Rannoch, Admiral Raan. With us," said the geth prime.

"Legion?" questioned Shepard.

"No. I'm sorry, Commander. Legion is behind you," replied the prime.

Not wanting to look back at the obvious corpse of one of her best friends, until she hears it calls her name, "Shepard-Commander."

She turned to identify the assailant. To only find that the geth prime was not in fact lying or just talking about his corpse. He was standing with Offensive zapping him with a blue beam of light as he started to walk towards her, "I guess I'm more like you than I thought."

"How?"

"*cough* cough*" coughed Offensive, getting Shepard's attention.

"You copied his personality, put it into storage, let him die, brought him back to life by reuploading it, and hooking him back up to the geth hub to receive his upgrades," stated Tali, hitting the nail right on its head.

"Precisely Tali'Zorah," replied Offensive. "Admiral. If your people need a place to stay, we can accommodate your people."

"I'm sure that my people have spent enough time on space stations and ships for... By...The... Ancestors." stated Raan in awe as she looks up at the beauty of the Forerunners might, Maethrillian. The rest of the people shared a look at the giant space in awe, "Ho...ly... shit...that's big," called Joker over comms.

"It is double the size of Jupiter, Commander," called out EDI.

"A ship can't possibly that big!" yelled Garrus in shock.

"Space station. And no we build much smaller ships. But, back to what we were talking about Admiral. We have plenty of space to care for your people if they can get over their grudge with AIs," stated Offensive to Admiral Raan as she is staring at the _'Planetoid Space station'_.

"I...I'm n... not sure if our people will uh... get over it that quickly. Give it time and we will decide to get a room on your Space station," replied Admiral Raan gathering her wits of recovering from her shock and awe.

"Of course. I believe the geth wish to share words with you."

"Yes. We will honor Legion's Promise. The Geth fleet will help you retake Earth, and our engineers will assist in building the Crucible," stated the geth prime.

"As will ours, of course," added Raan.

"Admiral, had you considered possible settlement sites?"

"We...The southern continent had excellent farmland, as I recall."

"Are you going to be okay?" asked Shepard in a soft voice.

"I believe so, Commander. Thank you," replied Raan.

With the prime and Admiral now gone, Tali leaves to go sit on the cliff face and watch the sunset, and maybe Maethrillian orbiting above. I was awe-inspiring to see, but also terrifying. Who could have the to build something of this scale. I they could build space stations bigger than gas giants, could they build their own worlds? Time will only tell. Shepard joined her at the cliff face, "Shopping for another house?"

"Beachfront property," replied Tali.

"Claim it fast. It's a buyer's market."

Tali sighed as she sat down on the rocky cliff edge and tucked in her legs as Shepard did the same, "You okay? I know working with the geth, Void, Offensive, and any other AI will be difficult."

"I'm not staying. I'm coming with you."

"I wasn't going to ask."

"I think you've earned a few favors with the fleet."

"I'm asking them to launch an assault on the Reapers. Figures that makes us even."

"If the Reapers were going to stay on Earth, sure. But sooner or later, they'll come to Rannoch."

"We did just kill one of them."

"So I'm coming with you to stop them...if you think I can help."

"You sure about this Tali. Maethrillian might be crawling with AIs," joked Shepard.

"Yeah," giggled Tali, "I look at all this...this picture of hope and peace. And all I see is everyone I've lost. My team on Haestrom. My father. Even Legion. I was mourning a geth until the bosh'tet rises from the grave like in the human horror vids."

"That's not crazy, Cerberus did it to me remember," replied Shepard smiling at Tali actually mourning a fallen friend.

"It is beautiful, though, isn't it?" asked Tali when she stands up.

"Yeah. It is."

"It will be years before we can live without our suits completely, but right now..." said Tali as she steps forward and proceeds to take off her faceplate. "Right now, I have this."

 **Normandy's comms. room, Tikkun system, heading towards Maethrillian**

"Commander Shepard, I understand you've helped resolve the situation with the geth," stated Councilor Tevos.

"Yes," confirmed Shepard," Two in fact, and a third on the way."

"I've read the reports. You ended a war three centuries in the making, and helping to solidify the first intergalactic alliance ever."

"Had a lot of help."

"We have isolated pockets of remaining geth. As best we can tell, they are geth bodies loaded with Reaper code. But they are just a tiny fragment of the full geth fleet. You've done the impossible, Commander. And I may be able to provide help of my own. I have received information from my government. It's too sensitive to discuss over an unsecured channel."

"We can discuss this once our Alliance with the UEG/UNSC is finalized."

"Yes, that would be best, Commander. I'll be waiting for you in the former Councilor Udina's office," said Councilor Tevos as She cuts the fed and ends the call.

"I wouldn't meet there. Cerberus most likely used him to get control of the Citadel through the thirst of power, or blackmail. That room is likely bugged head to toe," stated Void just after the Councilor hangs up.

"Were you just spying on me?"

"Sorry, a force of habit. My statement still stands."

"I'll take note of that. What's the ETA to Maethrillian?" asked Shepard as she makes her way out of the comes room to the Security checkpoint with Miss Traynor calling over comms," Commander, Admiral Hackett is available on vid comm."

"Ten minutes, Commander," replied EDI as Shepard goes towards the cockpit where everyone is crowded around Joker and EDI.

"It looks like a giant egg. Strange shape for a space station, but it's bigger than the Citadel by miles!" exclaimed James as she takes in Maethrillian in on it's the size to the Citadel and Omega.

"Size is not everything. It must be functional to serve a purpose. Something this big isn't on the functionality list. Just look at it! It's a pale white, giant egg in space! It's impractical," snorted Javik in frustration of being around more stupid machines.

"Your being really touchy Javik. Why so angry at the Forerunners and UEG? Jealous that they have a bigger space station and maybe bigger ships?" teased Ashley.

"Maethrillian to Normandy. Do you read?" ordered an unknown voice over comms.

"This is Normandy to Maethrillian. We read you," replied Joker.

"Sending coordinates to Shipyard 0196, Docking Bay 78. Coordinates sent to Normandy's ancilla. How copy?" stated Helix Sole.

"Acknowledge," replied EDI until she was asked another question.

"Ancilla EDI, does Normandy's crew easily get motion sickness?"

"Most of them should be okay. Why do you ask?"

"I'll get the mop," sighed Helix as she hangs up on the horn.

"This is a pretty long tunnel," said Joker as he states the obvious and sees a light at the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel quickly became unbearably bright and EDI had to take control for a second as they came to giant, geometrical, smooth, silver-gray buildings that went on for miles. Unlike on the Citadel, where you could possibly see the end of the building complex of the Citadel. With Maethrillian you couldn't. It stretched on for miles in all directions. A view like this was to die for. They couldn't get too far into the city as EDI had to keep control has Joker stared out in amazement. Turning right and going a few dozen miles they could see some ships in the shipyard. All of them were bigger than the Normandy. The eight all black ships at least three hundred meters long, seventy-five meters tall, and one hundred eighty meters wide. It was a big girl, a Stealth heavy frigate or light destroyer was what came to mind on the ship's design to Joker. Then there was the giant silver-gray cruisers, docked right next to them.

"Uh Dock Control, I don't see a docking clamp?"

"We do not use physical docking clamps. We gravity locks and hardlight bridges. Please continue docking bay 78, Normandy," replied Helix.

Surely enough, when Joker has gotten close to the docking stop, and Normandy's controls ceased and the Normandy came to a stop. Shortly after by a large orange bridge extending to the Normandy's airlock. Just as they dock Commander Shepard gets a private call over comms. from Offensive Bias, "Commander Shepard. I would like to inform that on this visit, you should not bring Prothean warrior-servant Javik with you. I know that you might ask why, but you already know. Protheans can look over individuals memories without their consent. As of Cole Protocol, the UNSC's Spartan Fireteam, Black, and Blue cannot risk the leaking of sensitive information to an ally, or otherwise. Thank you for your time, Commander." Shepard forgot about that little detail about Javik, but, _'How do they know about that'_ thought Shepard as she thinks it over on who to bring with her to Maethrillian.

"Commander Shepard, We are docked and going through decontamination," said EDI.

"Liara, Garrus, Ashley, Tali, and Vega, you're with me," ordered Shepard. The walk really wasn't that far as the team was crowded in the cockpit to Joker's discomfort. The first thing they saw was the orange hue of the bridge as Garrus nervously touches it, "Solid as a rock. Just no idea how they even do just use 'Hardlight'. Just what even is it?" stated Garrus as he cautiously moves further down the bridge to finally notice the floating light bulb and the eight Aggressor-class sentinels beside Helix Sole on both sides. They were waiting patiently for Shepard's team arrival. Finally arriving at the end of the bridge they were greeted by the monitor of the Maethrillian installation. "Greetings! I am Monitor-class Ancilla 609 Helix Sole, monitor and controller of this installation, Maethrillian. Please follow me from to the designated meeting area," said Helix as she opens a portal to the Council building on another floor of Maethrillian.

"What is that? Some kind of teleportation device?" questioned Liara as she is fascinated by everything the Forerunners have built.

"Yes, it is. Just try to hold down your lunch."

"Wait!? What!? Will this make us sick if we go through!?" asked Tali nervously. She still didn't recover from her mask removal on Rannoch.

"No. That would be motion sickness, and yes we do have technology that could help you Quarian if you have the misfortune to throw up your lunch in your suit."

"Oh come Sparks. It's just a little sudden motion. It can't be that bad," said James Vega cheering up Tali to come with them.

"Fine," she said as she is the first to go through followed up by the Commander, Ashley, Vega, Garrus, and Liara. On their arrival to their location, everyone was either leaning on the walls to get themselves reaccustomed to the feeling of the ground below them. Some of Shepard's team was even dry heaving on the ground. Thankfully no one threw up and Helix doesn't need to clean up the mess. As Shepard and team got back their bearings and stop dry heaving. Helix Sole guided them to a meeting room with the warrior-servants. Coming to a very large hardlight door and stopped by Helix Sole, " This is the meeting room, pseudo-reclaimer. I wish you the best of luck."

"You're not coming with us," asked Shepard.

"No. I am the piloting captain of Maethrillian, and Chief Engineer of her shipyards, armory, and environmental manager."

"What should I know about the Spartan fireteams?"

"They are touchy about their real names and will only give rank, designation code, and Fireteam affiliation. Think of it as Hanar names, face names and private names. They do not share it with anyone outside of high ranking officers and fellow Warrior-servants, or Spartans. You or the Asari, Liara T'soni, most likely found out that some of the gaps in history are covered up. Fear not, all of that will be resolved."

"Was there a reason for this cover-up?" asked Shepard just asking to get more information out of them and not hoping to get some information covered in black ink.

"Spartans just got out of a devasting first contact with the Covenant. Leaving hundreds of worlds glassed, and billions dead. Aliens are seen with suspicion and as possibly hostile life forms. They were in the said war for the entire duration, so talking a lot is out of the question and will give them a hoarse throat if not hydrated. On another note, Humans, and aliens rarely get along."

 _'I hope they are not xenophobes towards aliens that did no wrong in their war with the Covenant,'_ said Shepard before asking another question, "If that's the case. Then why come here?"

"They come because of the Mantle demands it," stated Helix.

 _'Was that war so bad that they came ultra-religious with the protection of their livelihood that they came up with the Mantle to justify heinous acts to lawbreakers of the Mantle,'_ thought Shepard of their conditions with aliens, "Is there anymore AIs outside you, Void, and Offensive that we will be meeting."

"Yes, Metarch-class Ancilla CTN-0452-9, Cortana is the attache to Blue Team, Metarch-class Ancilla LIT 5407-2, Metarch-class, Lilith is the attache to Black Team, and finally Metarch-class Ancilla Heirloom of Life, Commander of the soon to be Maethrillian Defense fleet."

"Thank you, Helix Sole."

"Your welcome pseudo-reclaimer," said Helix Sole as she leaves through a portal, back to her post to finish the designs of the energy weapon based UNSC ships. There were some major issues with the power source to the size of the vessel. All vessel might have to be massively scaled up if they wanted the ships done in a reasonable time frame.

Walking near the hardlight doors instantly made them dissolve away as Shepard and her team entered the room and have it close behind them. The meeting room is a large almost oval shape room with a giant circular hardlight table floating in the middle of the room. Sitting at the far end of the large table was eight very large, tall, and tough looking mechs if you had no idea what you were looking at. _'How can humans be that tall!? What type of augmentations did they get?'_ thought Shepard, looking amazed by the Spartans' size. They were indeed, in fact, nine feet tall in their armor and possibly just a little bit shorter outside their armor. What was even more fascinating was their armor. Oh, how Shepard and Tali were jealous of their suits. Shepard was infatuated by the armor, _'Jesus Christ! That armor looks like it could tank dreadnought level orbital strikes!'_ thought Shepard as she examines the large, blocky and bulky armor of the Indomitable-class Mjolnir armor of Otto. _'Keelah! That armor! I need one of those!'_ thought Tali has she examines Roma's slender, light-weight, and deadly COPPERHEAD Mjolnir-GEN 2. But that was all of the people in the room, no other AIs present.

"Commander," snapped all of the Spartans in a crisp salute.

"At ease," replied Shepard with a salute as they all sat down in quite comfortable chairs and the Spartans sat back down. _'Am I the higher ranking human officer.'_ "Thank you for Meeting us on such short notice. I was told by Ancilla Void that you would help to form an alliance with us. I'm here to get the basic structure of this alliance. And.." was all that Shepard could say before she interrupted by the Spartan with a weird optical lenses helmet.

"Before we get into the basics. Let's get the introduction out of the way and skip the political bullshit," stated the now known female Spartan.

Shepard obliged, "Commander Shepard, Xavierra Sophia of the Systems Alliance N7 Program, Citadel Specter, former Cerberus operative, and Commanding Officer of SSV-Normandy SR2 heavy stealth frigate," stated the Commander proudly as she was followed by Ashley.

"Lieutenant Commander Williams, Ashley Madeline of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps, Citadel Specter, and XO of the SSV-Normandy SR2."

"Lieutenant Vega, James of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps, Weaponsmith attache of the SSV-Normandy SR2," stated James as followed by Liara. "Scientist and Intelligence Specialist, Doctor Liara T'soni, an attache of the SSV-Normandy SR2."

"General Vakarian, Garrus of the Hierarchy Military, Ship-to-ship weapons Specialist, attache to the SSV-Normandy SR2," stated Garrus as he was followed up by Tali. "Admiral Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Normandy, Tech Specialist, an attache of the SSV-Normandy SR2."

 **Maethrillian, Arrival, Councilor Room 027, Spartans POV**

"They do look like bastardized Elites!" exclaimed Roma over private comms. to everyone in surprise of the Turians likeness to the Elites.

"Just as ugly, though," replied Kelly unmoved by them.

"Look at the one in the suit Lilith. What do Quarians look like under their suits?" asked Linda in curiosity.

"Very humanoid. their legs, lack of hair that this not on their heads, and very pale purplish skin and eyes," answered Lilith.

"I would imagine that a lot of marines and helljumpers wouldn't be against getting real 'friendly' with the Asari if they were here to meet," added Cortana as Kelly spoked up to skip the political bullshit. As they finish their introduction John was the first to speak with his deep voice.

"Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Sierra-117, Spartan-II Commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command, Team Leader of Spartan Fireteam: Blue. To my left is my Sub-Leader Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Sierra-104, Sparta-II Commando, Petty Officer, First Class, Sierra-087, Spartan-II Commando, and Petty Officer, First Class, Sierra-058, Spartan-II Commando."

"Chief Petty Officer, Sierra-053, Spartan-II Commando of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Leader of Spartan Fireteam: Black. To my right is Sub-Leader Petty Officer, First Class, Sierra-143, Spartan-II Commando of ONI. Petty Officer, Second Class, Sierra-031, Spartan-II Commando of ONI. Petty Officer, Second Class, Sierra-101, Spartan-II Commando of ONI."

"First thing first. Safety of Civvies. We will allow any civvies stay on Maethrillian until the end of the war, it's conclusion, and most likely the reconstruction of the Galactic Alliance's home planets, star systems, and travel. They will be able to roam free through Maethrillian with little issues; Furthermore, we, of course, will able to shelter, feed, house, medical, and clothe them. We have quotas to fill if there is a catastrophic end to all of each species. Then the end result will be a massive safe harbor to all species on her," said Linda as her voice starts being hoarse at the end and gets rougher.

"We have protocols for that. We will send after this meeting in full detail," added Margaret.

"Military is the mainstay of this Alliance. Once we talk with all of the Generals and Admirals of all respective species. We will act on some of our premade plans and strategy to deal with the Reapers. At the moment we have only one fleet. Once we are firmly establishing ourselves and start building more ships, we can start organizing battles on multiple fronts. We, of course, will be on the ground, taking heavily fortified positions, and espionage on enemy troops of Reaper forces or Cerberus forces. We will also send in hundreds if not millions of Knights to help in Allied ground forces, up to, tanks, artillery, mortars, APCs, IFVs, gunships, bombers, and mobile command centers," stated Otto as he wasn't a spartan to really get a hoarse throat like many others.

"We can't do much for the building of this crucible, but we can greatly alleviate the pressure the Reapers are putting on you. The trading of technology is out of the question. You will have to make do to advance to our level yourself. We will aid massively in the medical department," stated John, rounding things off.

"Any questions in particular to any subject discussed, Commander and company," asked Linda as Lilith, Cortana, Heirloom of Life, and Offensive Bias makes an appearance in their own avatars except for Offensive Bias with his chassis and gave them their introduction.

"As Admiral of the Migrant Fleet, I wish to know more on the medical side of your technology. Will Quarians be safe and able to perform suit maintenance. And on another note is food. How are you even able to feed anyone that's not human?" asked a curious and fascinated Tali.

"We have advanced sterile field generators for that situation, and any other species. Food, we have perfected the technology of food replicators and can make anything to our designed liking. And yes we already have a lot of each species food cataloged since our arrival," answered Cortana.

"Your Knights. What are they exactly and how many do you have?" questioned Garrus.

"The Knights are our frontline shocktroopers. They are the Smart AIs with hardlight digital bodies, carry a Hardlight weapon in one hand, and a Hardlight melee weapon in the other. We have around one hundred twenty billion Knights of varies classes," answered Cortana.

 _'Jesus Christ! That's a lot,'_ thought Shepard as she asked her own question," We known you been in the galaxy for a very long time and most likely have a lot of knowledge on the capabilities of Element zero. Would it be possible to get more advanced technology of element zero?"

"Yes. You already have some of the upgrades for your weapon systems, warship systems, and Omni-tool upgrades. We can artificially create element zero reserves for the Citadel Alliance if need be," responded Cortana.

"What!?" yelled Shepard and her team. It was a real shock to get the knowledge and technology to artificially create element zero. That opened a lot of other doors and horrors to the team.

"Wait! Element zero can be artificially created!? How's that possible!?" exclaimed Ashley.

"Element zero is in on itself an artificial element. Nothing like this can be naturally occurring with a mass of 'zero'. The Reapers artificially create it by mimicking an area of any element to a supernova's energy and *bam* element zero!" answered Cortana.

The team was dumbfounded by this information. The Reaper trap just keeps getting bigger and bigger, but wait! "If the Reapers artificially creates eezo, then there is a limited supply eezo in the galaxy!" proclaimed Shepard in the realization of the fact if they win they won't be a refresh in the supply of eezo.

"That pseudo-reclaimer is true. But there is still large quantities of this element throughout the galaxy. It would be paramount to have the knowledge of this in your hands and start as soon as the research for it has started. The method of which eezo is created is not easy in any sense of the word. Very much complex mathematics, physics, mineral engineering, and some newly made mathematics. This isn't something that is done overnight," replied Offensive.

"Can we get this mathematics and physics and other knowledge of this to the Salarian Union. They will know that this knowledge would a goddess sent if they can do it," said Liara, still recording the conversation. Of course, this was known beforehand, but did not warrant to tell her to stop.

"It will be sent to your private terminal Doctor."

"This space station that you came with does house a pretty little fleet for something I thought on first sight would be huge. Not saying it isn't, but I thought it would have more than one cityscape. But I just want to know your fleet strength," asked Garrus as he pries for a sense of this space station.

"Maethrillian breaks into twelve different levels of inhabitation, level eight is home to our beaches and expansive forest, level seven to semi-desert regions with beaches and canyons, and level six for a rich expansive garden, forest, lake, and mountainous areas. Our single and only fleet at this time is consist of one hundred sixty-three space-worthy vessels. One Keyship-class dreadnought, One Fortress/Infinity style Super cruiser/Supercarrier, One Domination-class Super Battleship, two Infinity-class Supercarriers, five Punic-class carriers, fifteen Orion-class Assault carriers, twenty Autumn-class Light cruisers, twenty Marathon-class Heavy cruisers, ten Valiant-class Super heavy cruisers, forty Midlothian-class Heavy destroyers, fifty Strident-class Heavy frigates (A:N Does not include the twelve frigates in the Infinities), and eight Sarhara-class heavy prowler. The hybrid supercarrier/super cruiser is still under-construction and the same of the Domination-class super battleship," answered Offensive Bias.

"Oh," said Garrus as Offensive finish and registered that Maethrillian has mountains on it! _'Mountains on a Spirits Forsaken Space Station! What did we get into!?'_ cursed Garrus speaking to himself on this mountain on a space station! He really couldn't wrap his head around this. "That's a decent size fleet," said Garrus still trying to recover from his momentary shock.

"We are planning more fleets and task groups to deal with brush fires, but that's until later."

"You said you had military protocols and plans to share. Can we look over them?" asked Ashley as everybody's Omni-tool just pinged of receiving notification.

"I'll go over... I must leave. Something desires my attention," stated Offensive as he quickly opens a portal and leaves.

 **Maethrillian Central Control room**

"Where are these slipspace vectors coming from? We do not have any ships in slipspace at this time," stated Offensive to Void and Helix.

"We do not know of it, but it worries me that we might be correct about this galaxy and its origins," replied a very startled Helix Sole.

"Are all ships deployed and ready for combat?" asked a rushing Contender ancilla to his dreadnought.

"Yes and there something familiar about their signal? How is this possible?"

"Helix."

"It's...The ancient Human Ecumene!" yelled Helix as the slipspace sensors confirmed the ships make and origin.

"Are you sure?"

"Indefinitely! It's them and... Ancient San'shyuum ships, lots of them. Thousands of them each!"

 **Andromeda galaxy, Admiral Osman's office, Unknown location**

 _'Got damn it all to hell'_ yelled a very angry admiral in her head on the recent tries to investigate ONI. It all started three months ago with the disappearance of Spartan fireteam: Black and Blue. The supposed death of two highly decorated Spartan-II teams lost all within a week! Oh, High Command was not happy at all with the loss of their Spartans and John-117, the Conquering Hero, the Savior of Humanity, the Savior of the galaxy, had died. The entire human government, population, and military wanted an answer and they got them. When they came across the ONI signal with a brief explanation of Black and Blue teams' absence. They launched an intergalactic journey to stop a parasitic life form from consuming the neighboring galaxy, in exchange for the Forerunner Capitol, Maethrillian, and any ships made during the time of the campaign. That was a very valid excuse for something that would be a god sent for moral support, navy support in combat and in terraforming roles. Forerunner made ships would be a blessing. What faction could stand against a Forerunner Dreadnought and not shit themselves?

That was not the point of the Admiral Osman pissy mood, no. It's the fact that it was leaked to the public of the Spartan teams' location and goal of their mission. Covering up that story was easy, come out publicly denouncing it as false, bury the leaker, and move on. Problem was, there was no leaker and she doesn't know you did it. Thankfully the public and government eat it up as truth, good on ONI. The true problem was that the ONI ship suddenly had a thousand leaks. Thankfully they were all mundane and unclear but put enough tiny holes into a ship, it will sooner or later sink. And oh were they sinking. The government successfully vote to cut section 1 & 2 funding by a third to fund section zero to oversee any corruption in the other sections. Zero were basically breathing down her neck for every mission, spartan mission, black ops, sabotage runs, etc. They couldn't even send any supplies to the Servants of the Abiding Truth. _'If information like that got out'_ thought Osman as she massages her neck in the irony of what they will do _'If' they found out.'_

Sooner or later something major will leak and there will be hell to pay for if that happened. Osman was planning an escape route if she had to make a run for it for the past three months. Chances of her success were slim, but there. Kilo-5 was, of course, a reliability and have to be dealt with. She had to somehow also kill Dr. Halsey when the shit hits the fan for ONI. She also knows too much. Then there was her mentor, Admiral Parangosky, that needed to be tied off. A lot of problems, but no solutions. This was not looking good...*ping ping* rang her computer. She quickly opened it to a Priority one channel, _'Something must have happened'_ thought Osman as she straightens up for the call from the Infinity. "Captain Lasky."

(A: N) And that's it! Thank god! I'm sorry that this took sssssoooooo long to get out, but staring at a screen all day (I have two online-only classes) is just horrible. If you didn't notice the timeline of the Haloverse is changing a bit. Some events don't happen, some happen sooner than they were in canon. But the Reclamation of the Haloverse is upon humanity and they will be tested! I hope you like the story and hope you like the upcoming new stories. From most favorite to least, story number 3 will be next followed by a tie of two and four and no votes of one (See the last chapter). Story number three won't be coming out anytime soon, but it is being developed as we speak, or as you read really, idk.

Deplorable out!


	6. Chapter 6

**Halo X Mass Effect Crossover**

 **I do not own Halo (Microsoft/ 343 Industries) or Mass Effect (EA/ Bioware).**

 **Operation: Noah**

 **Chapter 6: The Old and the New**

 **AN** : I have two changes to the story with the Precursor's name change to 'Iconic One' and there being Forerunner Promethean soldiers with the rest of the Promethean varieties. Sorry for being such a late chapter of at least one per month, but my school work, other projects, school projects, job searching, and other miscellaneous things has thrown a wrench into my updating schedule. Please note that some of your reviews are sometimes right on the mark, but it will be answered in the very next chapter. It is always okay to ask questions and criticize my work; furthermore, to the guest reviews, I could have PM your questions, but you are not logged in or created an account. If you are a Guest, I urge you to create an account, so I can answer your question directly and not in the reviews sections or _Author Notes_ of the next chapter. Thank you.

 **Guest** : Offensive Bias is in his chassis, not humanoid. It would be appropriate for Ancient Humanity to be an "Ecumene" or Empire _*Before*_ the Human-Forerunner war. After? Yeah, it would most likely (Definitely) be a Stratocracy during the war between them. The next part will all be explained in this chapter. The Heavy fleets are mostly composed of Battleships and Dreadnoughts for the interception of the Forerunner space station and scouts. Note: No one asked how the Human Stratocracy heard the Slipspace ruptures up unto now. Void was going around the galaxy studying things and upcoming species. They had some help ;). More stuff that will be explained in this chapter.

 **ArcheronVolistad** : It's really to give you a sense of familiarity with what the ship looks like. Then again, why is the Ur-Didact flagship is so special, outside Master Builder Faber is a friend. They built ships as big as PLANETS! So then, why is this ship so special. To be honest, I think it's just to make a 'unique' character that 343 Industries just came up with. Then how will the UEG/UNSC due maintenance on them if they have Hardlight version of UNSCNV ships? The Forerunner technology they left behind is for Humanity, but I'm sure Hardlight technology and understanding are beyond the UEG/UNSC at the moment. Having ships with a super advanced version of Covenant Laminated armor? I think it is well within the capabilities of ONI to reverse engineer the ships they will be given especially with Offensive help and the Forerunner Capitol, Maethrillian. The rest is my bad I forget some little details now and again.

 **kamikage86** : I saw them! They were awesome! I'm going to include Ancient Humanity, but not yet. ;)

 **Halo Star Wars X-over fan** : I'm sure I PM you why that is wrong. On another note did you even PM back? You seem like a person that likes to be on site. Do you have any option for my upcoming Halo/Monster Musume/M.G.E./Star Wars/ Mass Effect crossover? It's going pretty well. I have it as a four-stage event with Halo/Monster Musume/ and M.G.E. being the first 30-40 chapters, then 30-40 chapters of Stage-1 and Star Wars, then Stage-1 & 2 with Mass effect with 50-60 chapters (Includes Pre-ME:1, ME:1, and ME:2). Then Stages-1,2, & 3 with the Grand Finale. It's going to be pretty epic, but that will have to wait with the Mass Effect remake being the most supported. The Rise of the Terran Empire Stage-1 is 50% completed with chapters ready to be typed. PM me if you wish to know more on these two projects or my other two. _**Shadow Walker of Fire**_ is my most vocal supporter of the ME remake. _Note; none of the chapters of the super cross-over are in anyway finale._

: John is military to a 'T'. Reporting his troops & ship numbers are just to build some trust and let them know that they won't try anything. But, of course, we know better. Right?

 **Unknown ship to Tikkun system, Maethrillian anchored location**

"What do you mean there aren't any Forerunner life forms on the space station," yelled a very anger High Lord that Iconic One could actually be right about the Forerunners, They succumb to the Flood or succeed in the destruction of the parasite's advance with a great cost. The price of victory against them was very severe.

"There are none, My Lord. We have registered only human, turian, asari, and quarian life forms, My Lord," answered the ensign.

"My Lord! We have the High Admiral of the San'shyuum fleet on the horn," stated the comms. officers.

"On screen," order the High Lord in the hidden anger, disguised in professionalism as he presses the button on his command chair to answer the call from their life-long allies.

"High Lord Denstak. There is supposed to be Forerunners on the space station, yet my ship's intelligence and sensor array officer state that there are no Forerunners on it. Can you explain?" questioned the very angry, but professional San'shyuum.

"I believe your Intelligence has already informed you that there are no Forerunner lifeforms on the station at all, right?" asked the High Lord Denstak.

"Yes; however, this can't' be right. This space station was their capitol of the Forerunner Ecumene!" yelled the San'shyuum High Admiral.

"We did detect eight unknown augmented humans with some of our own early augmentations procedures with a lot of Forerunner augmentations," stated the High Lord's Intelligence.

"Humans? As in our Human brothers and sisters, won the war with the Forerunners and the Flood!?" questioned the surprised High Lord of the ramifications of this, if true.

"Unknown, and unlikely. The likelihood that we won the war on two devastating fronts, unlikely. Unable to go further with scans. I am being blocked by a Forerunner Ancilla. We will be dropping out of slipspace shortly, My Lord," stated the Intelligence.

 **Maethrillian, Councilor Room 027**

"Okay? Military protocol. There is WINTER CONTINGENCY. It is the event of an imminent Reaper invasion of a star system. HARVEST CONTINGENCY is active when the Reapers have successfully assimilated more than ninety percent of a planet's inhabitants and the authorization of mass orbital bombardment and the usage of WMDs to destroy any Reaper troopers, ships, and future assets. There are others, but those do not pertain to you directly for now and in the future," stated Cortana as Offensive rushes off to do who knows what.

"You still use WMDs?" asked a very surprised Ashley.

"We are much more advanced than you are when it comes to our nuclear arsenal and our liberal usage of them," replied Cortana.

"You use nukes in combat!?" questioned a shocked Liara in the barbaric ways of the UEG/UNSC.

"It's just space, Doctor. Unlike your warships, our warships are built to shield ourselves from any radiation from nuclear detonations. Planetside? Nothing we can't terraform to get rid of."

Shepard's team were taken back by this admission to the use of WMDs in space combat AND planetside. Of course, the entire galaxy has the clearance to use WMDs against the Reapers, but for the most part, their nuclear arsenal was dismantled before the invasion or destroyed by the Reapers. There were attempts to mount nukes on to frigates and destroyers to ram into Reaper formations; however, when they inevitably get closer to the Reapers, the ships run a higher chance of being shot down and failing to detonate close enough to deal thermonuclear damage to the shields and leaving it vulnerable to attacks.

"And your plans for military support in the war," questioned Commander Shepard.

"Our first plan of action is the liberation of Palaven from Reaper control in Operation Bird's Eye View, and Operation Birds' Nest for the liberation of Taetrus," stated Cortana seeing Garrus eyes light up.

"Why not Earth we are both humans, so why not liberate Sol first," questioned Ashley very hastily.

"There is a forty-one percent chance that the other species would see this as the Alliance hiding or holding back forces in the fight for survival against the Reaper threat, Pseudo-reclaimer," answered Heirloom of Life.

"The Turians are the biggest military threat to the Reapers right now. If it was liberated, It would be a major morale boost for your armed forces. We already knew you have a major distrust in Ancillas. If the liberation of the system and the neighboring star systems goes as planned, then we would be looked at more favorably even if we're mostly composed/ of A.I., pseudo-reclaimer."

Ashley said nothing in return as that was the asshole spikey-head Councilor's idea on all this. Suddenly some super advanced race from the outside of the galaxy comes in saying that they would save us and the galaxy from extinction, because of religious purposes. To add to it they were humans with multiple advance A.I.s on them with a space station bigger than some gas giants, ships of devastating firepower, an army advance enough to rule the galaxy with a iron fist, and the everlasting idea of the Councilor thinking that the Alliance is hiding some very valuable assets for last-minute counterattack on the Reapers. It's not true of course, but when did he ever listen to someone that's not him?

"I'm absolutely sure that the Turian Hierarchy Military High Command would love that and would be forever thankful for it. The rest of the galaxy will most likely want to know the rest of your plan for the liberation of the systems of other species. I'm sure the batarians would basically demand you to help them if they don't get their way," said Garrus.

"They will have to get in line. Next would be the surrounding Turian, Asari, and Human colonies. The Batarians will have to actually have to let go of their remnant slave trade to protect themselves," responded Cortana with contempt.

"They're still active in their slave trade!?" shouted Shepard in a twist of shock, rage, and amazement. "Must not be too bad if they can still go on slavery runs!"

"Their not, Commander. Just keeping what few slaves they have left doing the hard work or ... other things," stated Cortana frowning at the last part knowing during wartime, men like the Batarians like to spend most to all of their free time doing something 'fun'. That always involves a woman, a non-consenting woman.

"I know what you mean by 'other things'. I knew I should have killed that no good bastard Balak when I still had the chance! The things I'll," said Shepard as she was interrupted by Garrus. "I believe that answers all of our questions for now. I believe everyone here, including himself, would love to get a tour of this space station

"Yeah, I think I got hit in the last part of our battle with the Reaper. I really need to do some suit maintenance. A... Ancilla I would like to use your medical facilities. Can you take me to the closest one?" asked Tali to Heirloom of Life trying to distract Shepard before she loses it.

"Just follow Helix Sole. She will direct you to the medical facility, Admiral Zorah," answered Heirloom of Life. "She will personally lead your destination on Maethrillian. This meeting is adjourned. We will be recharging our drive core to jump to the Citadel in the next hour."

With that, the Spartans got up from their sits ready to leave through portals as Liara calls out to them, "Wait! I wish to clear up some of your," said Liara as they walk through the portal and closing behind them. "History," finished Liara in disappointment.

"I don't like this, Shepard. They are all a little too quiet for my liking," stated Ashley in a hint of concern.

"Yeah, I can see that. The more pressing issue I have is they really didn't clear things up with their history," replied Shepard. "More so, on themselves."

"The only thing I'm looking forward to is their weapons! They got to have some powerful shotgun or something. I would love to test out for myself," stated James as everyone leaves the room and is greeted by Helix Sole and open portals. "Lieutenant James Vega the far right portal will take you to the Armory and you are allowed to test any weapon to your liking. Take note that all weapons will not leave the armory and firing range. Admiral Tali'Zorah, the middle portal will take you our medical facility. The rest of you will take the far left portal to our 'museum'. I will clear up a lot of our history on arrival, Dr. T'soni," said Helix Sole as she goes through the far left portal. When she went through Shepard spoke up, " Garrus go with James, Ashley, you're with Tali. I will be with Liara."

Everyone nodded in confirmation and went through the respective portals with their teammate following suit. What they didn't know was the constant calls from the Quarian Admiralty on the arrival of around eighteen thousand vessels of immense size. Popping into the system like the Maethrillian did not too long ago. The Quarians were panicking and ready to fire upon the intruders, while the Geth just try to analyze the situation, identify the intruders, tag it's threat-level, and neutralize the target. Conclusion? Do not agitate the intruding ships.

 **Unknown Location, Unknown Time**

"If what Destroyer #089671 is correct then, these interlopers will be worse than the other before. They need to be stopped before they do anything critical. Their interference will cost us the cycle may be the whole cycle entirely."

"If they are helping Shepard, then they will be arriving at the Citadel soon. You must go silent for the remainder of the cycle. They can't be allowed to find the processors on the Citadel."

"I know. I'm shutting down any processing units that are not essential to the maintenance of my space station. Their movements must be monitored. Interference from them will be fatal."

"Then we need to make our ascension process faster."

 **Maethrillian comms. suite with the Human/ San'shyuum Fleet**

"This just keeps getting more and more interesting, huh John?" questioned Kelly as they are greeted by the hologram of High Lord Denstak and the San'shyuum High Admiral.

"Yeah," answered John almost annoyed by the sudden appearance of an Ancient Humanity/ San'shyuum fleet. The history between the Forerunners and this Humanity is very sour history. It's surprising that they didn't just open fire immediately on them. It would be a one-sided massacre.

"That is an understatement, John. Just think of all of the lost history they could share with us!" stated Cortana just thinking on all the 'missing' gapes in the pre-Human-San' shyuum/Forerunner/Flood War. Almost nothing is known before that war, but it is known that they were a tier 1 with the exception of an advanced understanding of slipspace travel.

"We will share our history in time, Intelligence. Now, we like to know of your intentions here with this Forerunner Intelligence and their Capitol," said Denstak in an almost demanding like voice.

"We came here to gain control of the Forerunner Capitol and Forerunner built UNSC ships, sir," John-117 in his crisp military tone. "To gain the Capitol and the ships, we were asked to travel to a neighboring galaxy to destroy the Reapers and uphold The Mantle of Responsibility."

"Yes, to uphold the twisted ideals of the Forerunners version of the Mantle. The Human-Covenant war? Tell me about it, Spartan."

"During the year 2525 the colony world of Harvest, first contact was made with a Covenant warship and dissolved into bloodshed. Contact with Harvest was lost and days later a battle group found the colony world partly glassed and a message was to the battle group," stated John as the Cortana played the message. " _Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instruments."_

"That was the start of the Human-Covenant war and resulting in the complete loss of the colony world and many more to come. The war lasted for twenty-seven years and took the lives of billions of civilians and military personnel, destruction of hundreds of worlds, almost the complete galactic annihilation twice by the firing of the Halo Array, almost successful releasing of a Gravemind, and an attempt to digitize the entire galaxy. The last one was a plan by Ur-Didact to eradicate the human population, but was stopped by Offensive and imprisoned in a cryptum," finished Cortana.

"The San'shyuum was the leaders of the Covenant? What has happened to them?" question the San'shyuum with his hands rubbing his head as he felt a headache coming on.

"The San'shyuum was the leader and or Prophets of the Covenant. They lead the Covenant on the religious side in the worshipping of the Forerunners," said Cortana as the San'shyuum groans pain of his peoples very notion of worshipping the very ground the Forerunners walked on. It was disgusting and shameful. Offensive with ready access to the domain would fill in the gapes of the devolved San'shyuum history, "When the San'shyuum enter the age of space they went to war on the usage of a crashed Keyship containing the core piece of Contender-class Ancilla Mendicant Bias. The Separatists (Reformists) won and activated the Keyship and blew a chunk of their homeworld into space, and resulting in the destruction of it years later. They on a... crusade across the galaxy gathering Forerunner relics and species to join their religion. Resulting in the formation of the Covenant Order. When their High Charity, their mobile home and Covenant Headquarters, was besieged by the Flood Gravemind and crash landed on The Ark. Most San'Shyuum that were on High Charity died and were consumed into the Gravemind's intelligence. The few surviving San'shyuum are not enough to repopulate the species."

The San'shyuum High Admiral groaned in annoyance before speaking," _*Sighs*._ The damn Forerunners are still so incompetent that they just leave military equipment and hardware for anybody to just use, Intelligence? Did the Forerunners not learn from the Beron incident or the Neelvulls, Gruukkeks, and the Vraeqreaxs on finding their supposedly 'inoperable' ships and effectively using them to exterminate twenty other species for their resources, worlds, and technology! All of the supposedly high and mighty talk of being the ones to upkeep the Mantle of Responsibility, there is a lot of loss life under your care!" stated an over angry High Admiral as his close friend Denstak not daring to interrupt it.

"Yes, we have made many mistakes. I cannot say that my makers have really learned from their past mistakes, but I shall atone for their sins for helping ones that should have been the Keepers of the Mantle," answered Offensive in a humble voice. The Forerunners were quite lazy when it came to Military hardware when they got into being the sole inheritors of the Mantle. If a ship, vehicles, or whatever stop working they would run just throw it away. The conditions to throw away such pristine warships was mild and easy at best and just intermediate at worse. It would not be that hard to fix. Then there was the Flood outbreak of Installation 05 that went by for the next ONE HUNDRED MILLENNIALS! (AN: _I find it quite stupid that for some reason the containment breach of installation 05 went undisturbed for one hundred thousand years with no action taken. Something like that should be monitored by an Overseer of all the installations. Like, maybe an Artificial Intelligence that can command entire fleets with ease and reach these installations without issue. I don't know, just food for thought. end of rant.)_ Offensive, of course, didn't tell them that. It would only diminish what little faith he had in his makers.

The San'shyuum Admiral only scoffed in disgust as High Lord Denstak spoke up, "Thank you for your explanation, but I wish to warn you of the Reapers and possibly the resurfacing of the Flood."

 **Maethrillian Armory/Shipyard**

"This a UNSC sniper rifle!?" exclaimed Garrus as shocked at the size of the M-99 Stanchion AT SRS and the SRS99-AM.

"That is correct General Vakarian. Both weapon systems operate on gauss based weapon system to magnetic propel a tungsten carbide round at one hundred fifty kilometers per second for each rifle," explained Helix Sole.

"How's that even possible? You will need a mini reactor to even get one shot at that speed and the capacitors for it would need to hold the charge and handle at a constant rate without the need to recharge. Then you'll need to worry about the weapon overheating! How do you do it?"

"We use microvoid reactors to power the systems and supply the capacitors at a constant recharge rate upon use. Special Forerunner grade coolant is used to keep the heat to a minimal," answered Helix Sole.

"You said that the weapon systems fire tungsten carbide rounds? Are there anything special about the round," asked Garrus as he picks up the SRS99-AM rifle. He only overlooks the M-99 Stanchion SRS for later.

"That sniper rifle... **BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!** " said Helix before rounds were fired down range by James.

"Woohoo! That was awesome! I didn't feel a thing of recoil! what is this?" exclaimed James in shock of the UNSCDF DMR.

"That is the Reclaimer Military Armed Forces Designated Marksman Rifle. It fires AP tungsten carbide rounds at one hundred kilometers per second," replied Helix as Garrus picks up the sniper rifle and takes aim at the target center mass. **BOOM!**

"Do all of your weapons fire projectiles? Anything that is energy based like that one warship?" questioned James.

"Yes, Of course, pseudo-reclaimer," answered Helix as a wall of purple, Greyish glowing orange, and more UNSC like weapons appeared on the next the UNSC projectile weapons.

 **Maethrillian Medical Facility-A203 Wing A**

"This place seems pretty empty for the space station of this size," commented Ashley in suspicion of it being largely uninhabited.

"It was abandoned one hundred thousand years ago. And I was waiting for the Reclaimers to find it in the Scutum-Crux arm," replied Helix. "This is the room. If you will be trying the sterile field generator in the back right room. You can run any amount of tests on it as you wish."

They only just got out of the portal to a large blank room of glowing greyish-blue walls with a lonely floating medical bed in the middle of the room. Nothing else was in the room to the surprised of Ashley and Tali. They figured that if they were this advance, most injuries could be in and out in no time at all.

"Why do the Forerunners call them that? Reclaimers," asked Tali as she makes her way to the designated room. "And assume that your little nosy A.I. friend Void did his fair share of spying on my people?"

"You need not fear Admiral Tali'Zorah. We already have the generator set to cleanse any bacteria to would do harm to your physiology or your people. I have taken the liberty of giving you a dose of bio-solve and water for the infection you have now from you discarding your suit on Rannoch."

Tali flinched at that last part. To see a Quarians face is a very intimate act with family and a mate. It didn't even answer her question, but that last little tidbit spoke for itself. She would say something but was cut off by the A.I. ," Think of Bio-solve as our galaxy's medi-gel. It will be easy to grasp."

"And what is the sterile field generator? Does it do what it says?"

"Of course! It eliminates any and all foreign microbes of any species. Reclaimers have allowed your galaxy to have the Reclaimer version of the generator if the alliance is accepted."

"That would do some good for the people of the galaxy. Question, what makes these humans worthy of the Mantle? The Forerunners could be space faring for millions of years while the UEG has only been space faring for a couple of centuries. Why would they give this religious thing to a non-space faring species?" questioned Ashley doing what Shepard said to do or didn't. There was a slight cue of them separating to investigate. Tali, of course, entered the room without incident. ( _A/N: Tali is not taking off her suit just test with the bacteria that is known to have infected and killed Quarians in the three hundred years in space.)_

"Morals. My makers were too lenient in some cases and extremely spiteful in others, and at other times lazy and haphazardly pass judgment on the enforcement of the Mantle of Responsibility. There are many things my makers didn't do and should have done. Mostly the fact is the Mantle got in my makers' way of decision making," replied Helix. "As for giving it to a non-space faring species. My makers thought it would be better in their hands then my makers'."

"What happened to make them choose? You can travel to other galaxies and definitely quickly travel across your galaxy. Why not choose a present space-faring species?"

"We would if all of them were not devolved or even alive after the Forerunner-Flood War and not abuse the power we would give them. They would, just like my makers did upon them, they will do upon others. They were devolved into their most primitive state and resettled on their homeworld. Most had too little of a population to even merit saving, but the Librarian tried anyway. They still live; however, some of the species didn't get past the pre-space age, or the Nuclear age twice. It was a dark time and terrible stain on my makers' history."

Ashley is visibly shocked by this information. To devolve and make an entire species sent back to their most primitive times is downright terrifying. _'Just great! A species that can and will do some of the most heinous acts to you. They can easily be worse than the Reapers ever could dream of! They are almost playing a godly role doing what they did to the other species.'_ thought Ashley.

 **Maethrillian 'Museum', Forerunner History**

"You did what!?" yelled a very shocked Liara on how the Forerunner Ecumene ruled over the other species. It was harsh and unforgiving _if_ you got on the bad side of the Forerunners.

"It was one of many things my makers regretted to do on the species they ruled over. There was some that challenged my makers' rules of the Mantle, but it will all fall on deaf ears. As long as they didn't interfere with my makers' plans for the galaxy. There were some species like your own Batarians, Krogan, and Turians running about enslaving and exterminating other species. With or without the technology that was decommissioned into their campaigns. When my makers found out about this my lives were lost, species extinguished, and the Forerunners devolving the few species that took part in the violations of the Mantle while others were given the death sentences for their crimes. Then after the Flood-Forerunner war, my makers had to devolve a few species that would live to rule the galaxy with an iron fist, and not the humans we wanted to uphold the Mantle of Responsibility. My makers took steps on how it will be done to ensure that they were the ones to rise to the stars," replied Offensive.

"But to do that to any species is monstrous!" yelled Liara in shock and disgust. "I know to punish the species for all of their wrongdoing, but to exterminate and devolve a species!? That too far!

"Is your Council any better?" asked Offensive.

"Excuse me?"

"The Council sterilize the Krogan even after they won the war. They couldn't bring themselves to force the Krogan to the table for surrendering to them. Did they even try to get the Krogan back on track as an actual species that doesn't have they're entire existence centered around war? And the Rachni. The only reason the Asari or the Salarians still exist is by the fact of a stronger and a more militant species can actually defend itself and its territory. Any military competent species could easily topple the Citadel Council. Even the Batarian Hegemony was planning the same thing in the turn of the century."

"The Krogan.," said Liara before she was cut off.

"And the exile of the Quarians. If I told you that the Councils decision to exile them and ban them from colonizing future colonies was nothing short of a political decision that would indefinitely kill off the species very very slowly, and very very painfully?"

"Uh uh, I didn't know all of that!? B bb but how?"

"Asari. I am the most advanced A.I. of this galaxy and the next. And my makers sent Eye-of-The-Void to monitor this galaxy. Every government's dirty little secrets are known to me, Asari. Cease your transgressions on insulting my intelligence."

"Uh yeah, the Human-Covenant war? What made the Spartans be such strong-silent types?" asked Shepard with Liara still silent and processing what she was told.

"The Human-Covenant war started in 2525 on the planet of Harvest, during a First Contact. It turned bloody as the Covenant glassed the colony world with the message, _'Your destruction is the will of the gods. And we are their instrument.'_ is the first thing the Covenant Empire said to the Reclaimer Government. And it started the greatest lie in the known galaxy, that the San'shyuum were to inherit the galaxy and not the Reclaimers. This knowledge resulted in the failed extermination of the reclaimers and near total destruction of the Covenant Empire and the extinction of the San'shyuum, almost. Billions dead, hundreds of worlds lost, and scars that won't fade in near future," said Offensive as the wall behind his chassis shows pictures of the Great War. It was horrifying. The mutilated bodies dotting the landscape, glassing beams striking down from the heavens, and zooming out to the complete destruction of the world. "The result of blind obedience of false religion. The Spartans were there for the first battle of Harvest all the way to the Reclaimer homeworld, Erde Tyrene, Earth. They fought in hundreds of battles, operations, and other things that are covered in black ink. Note, that the casualties of the Reclaimers were mostly civilian. The Covenant Empire wish to kill any reclaimers on sight. That is why they are so quiet, so isolated. There wasn't much downtime between brush fires to rest and make friends. It was a brutal unforgiving war. That is why they are like that which you see them as. Did I answer your question," finished Offensive Bias?

"Uh yeah just about. Tell me about the Flood, what can I expect of them to do if we ever to encounter them," questioned Shepard a little bit disturbed at the history of the Spartans and the Human-Covenant war.

"They will invade your central nervous system and assume control of your body while in great agony," replied Offensive as he shows a human soldier and a Sangheili being converted into flood foot soldiers. Shepard and Liara watched in horror as the flood infection took over their body and twist and contort and disfigure the bodies into disgusting green abominations. "When the Flood reaches a suitable amount of _'organic matter'._ They have the unique ability to gain all knowledge of the absorbed matter, with the added benefit of sharing the knowledge to all other absorbed forms.They will form a Proto-Gravemind to coordinate its forces better than their feral stage forms. Then the dangerous Gravemind of the capabilities to grow new Flood forms, create ships, firearms, etc. Then the final and most deadly stage, Keymind," said Offensive in the unease of even mentioning The Primordial One. It was a pain to deal with this Precursor. "The Keymind has a unmatch processing power that even I would have trouble keeping pace. It can interface with A.I.s and infect them with the Logic plaque, control over slipstream space, distort space and time, and telekinetic abilities that are considered godly. In the event of a Flood infection of a planet the standard protocol is to cleanse the entire planet and blockade the entire system."

Shepard and Liara were silent on the explanation of the Flood, no. It was the pictures and videos that played in the background of Offensive Bias. A Flood Gravemind was talking to a smaller version of the Master Chief and a Sangheili. It's eyeless maw sending shivers down both of Shepard's and Liara's spines. Then the pictures of what a flood infected world looks like and all of its dangers of pulsating landscapes, tentacles grabbing any prey unlucky enough to get too close, and other monstrosities. It was truly an enemy that one shall not wish upon one's worse enemy.

"I believe that is enough for today. I believe Lieutenant Vega and General Vakarian are having fun in the armory."

 **Maethrillian Comms. Room**

"It only ended ten thousand years. We are still recovering from the One and a half Million long war. Even now we are just getting to this side of the galaxy to sweep for possible remnant flood forces out here. The Terminus systems and the Attican Traverse as the rest of the galaxy calls it, still could house unknown flood worlds," stated High Lord Denstak on the most devastating intergalactic war that will ever happen in a long time.

"Wow. Just wow," said Cortana in shock not daring to interrupt his story on the entire one and half millennia war with the Flood. "I can't believe your people went through such a war. Your government must be governed by the military for a never extended time," said Cortana thinking they adopted the Stratocracy form of government.

"Yes, Intelligence. Up until recently that we have handed the emergency powers back towards elected powers of the populous. They wished to be completely demilitarized, but I said otherwise to clear the entire galaxy of the Flood while the Iconic One does what he does best," replied High Lord Denstak.

"I assume the Precursors fighting the Flood was incredibly difficult to fight each other. I hope There isn't any massive group of Keyminds hiding out in the in these sectors of space, right," question Offensive in an unheard amount of worry, but none heard in his voice.

"No, intelligence. We destroyed the last known 'Keymind' millenniums ago and your so-called Gravemind nearing the end of the war. Now we are making sure there aren't any leftover Flood spores out there."

"Isn't the Flood just corrupted Precursors? Couldn't they just detect them by using their neural physics?" asked Heirloom of Life.

"Yes and no, Intelligence. They can try to detect them, but they will just mask their signature from detection. The lower The Corrupted's' intelligence the easier it is for us to find them. But it's still isn't easy as they could be mistaken for natural life-consuming animals or plants, but still possible to detect. Now it's just finding them. In the same one thousand light years, the radius can be detected with ease. At this point, we can handle it with little issue. No need for the Precursors to get involved" stated the High Admiral Ord Brunst.

"If your here to do the work of the Mantle then watch yourself, intelligence. If the Reapers get a good read on your position they will try going FTL right into you. It will hurt really bad and they will most likely try to do the same with their mass relays. Throwing any projectile they can get their hands on at you."

"On another side note. Why haven't both of your species and the Precursors deal with the Reapers before now? You seem to have some combat experience against them, so why do the Reapers still exist?" questioned Offensive in suspicions of something else is happening.

"The war with the Flood was a much more pressing issue on our minds. After the war, however, was a bit different. The Precursors wish for the species of the galaxy to defeat them themselves. The Reapers would have cleaned the entire galaxy of life before the Protheans were next. So they created the Protheans and the other species of the last cycle and made the species of this one. They wish to test every species for the right of existence and the right of the Mantle. This plan was long thought up before we even came here," replied the Ord Brunst.

"We still don't know how long the Precursors and the Flood had been at war. Or when this third humanity popped up into existence. We think they planned this for a long time, but we don't know for what. We think it's for the right to uphold the Mantle we just don't know which, Humanity, or which species shall have such a title," answered High Lord Denstak.

"This has been enlightening, but will there be a point in time that we will be called to take part in anti-flood operations," asked Margaret.

"No, Spartan. We have it from here just take this from our Intelligence to communicate with us in the emergence of a Flood outbreak going interstellar and reaching any higher intelligence," stated Denstak as his ship's intelligence sent Offensive the emergency access codes for Flood outbreaks to speak with any Fleet commander of the Human Republic ( _AN: It would most likely stay a Stratocracy type of government post-war-like in more realistic fanfictions, but this isn't about Ancient Humanity. Just the Spartans and the Mass Effect universe trying to stop the Reapers from harvesting the galaxy)_.

"Another question. What is Humanity's original language? We think it was Latin, but little is known for the entire language. Can you fill us in on it?" asked Cortana.

He didn't answer her, but she did get a load of language data to her with a lot of instructions and usage of words, junctions, and among other things. The UEG/ONI philologists would kill to get the original language of humanity to use to teach to children and adults. Latin was basically a dead language that no one spoke, but people until today could only use it for short phrases like, _'Ex Obscuris Lux'_ as 'Out of Darkness, Light', or _'Condemnant quod non-intellegunt_ as 'They condemn what they do not understand'.

"Thank High Lord. One more thing, your military is not like the Forerunner Military to leave military equipment laying around for anyone to use?"

"No, intelligence. The Forerunners most likely destroyed everything they came across that was occupied by us."

"I believe we spent a bit too much time on trivial subjects. There are Reapers out there that need to be stopped with their Ludacris plan of cleansing the galaxy of all life to cease the synthetics from killing organics. We shouldn't keep Shepard's team and the Citadel Alliance waiting," stated Offensive as the entire team is now at the armory testing weapons.

"Yes. Politics" sighed Kelly. "Where are they?"

"The Armory they are currently discussing our history, technology, and etc. Lieutenant James Vega is quite fond of the Covenant Order Needle weapons and General Garrus Vakarian is having fun with the Covenant Order Plasma Lance Focus sniper rifle, Reclaimer. They also asked to use them in upcoming missions. As told, only the Reclaimers can approve of it," answered Helix.

"Denied. If they will be working directly with us then they will only get to use them for that mission," stated John.

"We should be leaving. The Geth and Quarians are growing antsy towards our presence. Until we meet again Spartans," said High Lord Denstak as he leaves and cuts the feed with his San'shyuum counterpart.

"How are the system's inhabitants taking the Ancient Humanity/ San'Shyuum fleet?" asked Margaret.

"Not well for the Quarians. The Geth are taking it in strides. The Quarian Admiralty is trying to establish comms. with the Normandy and us. Most likely for answers and demand audience with us. We will ignore them for now and we are blocking any attempts at communications."

"Cortana?" asked John.

"Wasn't my idea, but we still shouldn't keep Shepard's team waiting."

 **Maethrillian, Armory/ Shipyard**

"Spirits! That all happened in there galaxy!? Spirits!" exclaimed Garrus in shock of the history of the Forerunners and the UEG/UNSC.

"Yeah. Fucking Loco shit. They did that to their subordinates after the Forerunner-Flood war!? Loco! Just Loco!" exclaimed Vega in shock with Garrus.

"We should keep an eye on them. They should not overstay their welcome here. They get in and get out as fast as possible. The one thing I don't want, is them to get some ideas in our time of need," stated Ashley.

"Yeah. Did you see their weapons!? Check this out," said Vega getting a purple weapon with strange needles pointing out of the weapon. "This baby right here is the Type-31 Needle rifle. It's a Designated Marksman Rifle with a twenty count Blamite Crystalline rounds that explode in large quality. Check it out!"

 **BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BOOOOOMM!** was heard as James fired the needle rifle down the range of the firing range of a target and explodes as it gets into a little cluster.

"Nice huh! Then this," said Vega as he gets another rifle like object from the table, "This baby is the Type-51 Plasma Repeater. Garrus over there is holding the Type-52 Focus Sniper Rifle. Check it out!" said Vega as he hands the Repeater off to Ashley.

"Not surprising that they have energy based, but to have it hand handled! That shouldn't be possible! Tali, You were with them medically. What did you see? What did they tell you?" questioned Liara as she almost begs her to tell her a secret like a school girl.

"Nothing much, but the sterilizing field generator is amazing! It does what the name says, sterilize the local area of any bacteria, disease, or virus. I would kill to get the schematics of it. The Admiralty Board would try me for treason if I didn't try to get my hands on it. Then there is this," said Tali reaching for the cylinder like container. "This is Bio-solve. This is their version of medi-gel. The A.I. * _cough cough*_ said I should take some with water. I * _aaaaachoooo!* *aaachooo!*_ BOSH'TET! Now _*sniff sniff*_ I'll need to clean my air filters and mask. Ugh * _achoo*!_ I should really get back to the Normandy. Helix.." said Tali as she already receives her answer.

"Please, Admiral Zorah. There will be four portable sterile field generators are waiting to be transported on to the Normandy," answered Helix Sole. Tali said nothing and just walk through the portal again and left the others behind.

"This is pretty weird. The silver and blue is nice and all, but the shape doesn't make it look like a rifle I've seen before," said Ashley putting it to her shoulder and firing it repeatedly in bursts.

 **PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW!** (AN: I know, stupid laser sounding noise I know okay.)

"How does this fare up against shields?" asked Ashley, "And is this thing coilless?"

Garrus was the one to answer, "Yes. It is absolutely devastating towards their Energy shielding. Oh did I tell you they Energy shields? They have them. Our shield? Let's not get into that part."

"It's not pretty at all. Imagine if your ceramic armor was now made of parchment paper and you get hit with the Plasma Repeater, not pretty and it's quick. If they miss, you will be in agonizing pain until death or medical treatment," finished James.

"Was there any inconsistencies with their story?" questioned Shepard as she eyes the weapons on the table for ease of use if any hostilities happen.

"No. Nothing we could tell. If you could tell if an A.I. was lying," answered Garrus still holding the quite heavy UNSCDF gauss sniper rifle.

"Commander. We need you to call the Citadel Alliance to clear an area of three hundred thousand kilometers on the system's border. Notify them of the radiation of slipspace portals," said John.

"EDI? Did you get that?"

"Yes, Shepard. Already sent. I'm not getting a confirmation from the Quarian Admiralty Board," answered EDI.

 _'Probably still slack-jaw from the gigantic space station,'_ reasoned Shepard. "We will continue without them. We're leaving. Helix?"

"Worry not, Commander. We can arrive at the Citadel in seconds."

EDI quickly received a message from Councilor Tevos on where they should arrive at to not scare the populace and the channel for Council members private communications. EDI forward it them Helix and in turn, gave them to Offensive. Shepard and her team said nothing, but James continued to tell the them about the Weapons of the Covenant Order, UNSCDF Gauss and Laser rifles, and Forerunner Hardlight weapons. All in all their weapons were terrifying in its effects on targets. Needless to say, they weren't very happy to be outmatched, but also scared if they ever get into their weapon's crosshairs. Helix said they had vehicles that had similar weapon systems in place with Heavy Redundant shields and Laminated armor. John told Helix to cease and desist in the detailing of vehicles' components and manufacturing of said vehicles, weapons, and ships. Just tell them we have vehicles and et cetera for a military campaign. The Quarians were still trying to contact the Normandy on the appearance of the massive fleet of warships. While the Geth were already told who the ships belong to by the end of the High Lord and Admiral has left. Thirty minutes later Maethrillian and her small fleet entered slipspace, heading straight to the Citadel with a Geth fleet heading to the Relay in suit of cooperation of upcoming operations. The Quarians would follow suit, but they were in the seeing distance of their homeworld for almost three hundred years that laid out of their reach. The less Geth in the system the better. The Admiralty wanted answers on the unknown ships to the Conclave, but not yet. They should head to the Citadel to request the attendance of Spectre Shepard.

 **Citadel Council Chambers meeting room-A, Minutes before arrival at the Citadel**

"How can you trust these unknown with anything they say? This all can be a Reaper trap, Tevos!" stated Spararus strongly.

"Sparatus. We need help pushing back the Reapers. Our worlds burn as we rush to finish the crucible. The longer this goes on, there won't be a galaxy to save. I have faith in Commander Shepard's decision to accept these outsiders' help. She hasn't failed us yet," said Councilor Tevos nervously. She couldn't admit that he could easily be right. Thessia is now firmly in the crosshairs of the Reapers and the Matriarch Council, or what's left of it. Was right now pressuring her into accepting any help she could get to keep Thessia and all of her colonies out of harm's way. Accepting the temporary Alliance with the UEG/UNSC was paramount. She was told to accept anything that is considered acceptable to the Asari populace. She was basically just a 'Yes man'. The Admirals and Generals were the ones with the real power now, regardless of species (Wartime powers).

"Both of you are right. Must complete the Crucible as fast as possible, while making sure that we have resources to build it and keep our militaries afloat and moving. If a massive and sudden force is to attack our military force it would be devastating. A major relief of the pressure that the Reapers are applying would go our way by lightyears. I would recommend we accept, but keep eyes close to them. Possibly in system," commented Councilor Valern. "Could gain new technology if lucky. Traveling through intergalactic space must be consuming a lot of their resources, could supply them with our own. More beneficially their own system. Boltzmann system is an obvious choice, Admiral Hackett."

"Already sent an approval. Just don't try anything stupid. We're dealing with highly advanced Artificial Intelligence. I doubt that the STG can effectively outsmart them to steal any weapons on their person," stated the Alliance Admiral with a bit of a heavy hand to not try to steal from them.

"The STG can be quite resourceful when it's needed," replied Valern.

"Right now we can't afford to open a war on multiple fronts."

"They know that. Must get some idea on their FTL drives. Intergalactic travel extra complicated. Fuel, food, materials, minerals, and other things not known to us will be needed. A symbiotic relationship is a good way to get some of their technology. Very valuable, if we win this war."

"I agree with Admiral Hackett. Spying on them could jeopardize what we could get out of our alliance. We need these 'Spartans' on our side, Councilor. I would advise that STG continue on their studies of Reaper movements and ambushes," stated Tevos firmly.

"Are your military leaders able to be reached on such short notice, Councilor," asked Tevos to Sparatus and Valern.

"Yes. And they voice the same concerns that I do. It is too convenient for their arrival," answered Sparatus.

"Yes. Dalatrass Linron and our Admirals and Generals will be attending the meeting in person," answered Valern as their respective Omni-tools pinged.

"Councilors and Admiral. The Spartans should be arriving," said the comms. specialist when a blaring alarm in the background goes off. _'Radiation Detected! Radiation Detected! Radiation Detected!'_ "That must be them. I'll you a visual Councilors, Admiral.

 **Serpent Nebula, Citadel, Traffic Control room-A019**

Belizea Connie was quite nervous right now with very strange orders of clearing out an area of three hundred thousand kilometers for an untold reason on the very edge of the system. Just nearing interstellar space where a lot of radiative materials would float in the void of space. Nicely tucked away from civilian scanners, eyes, and out of the way of shipping lanes, but that was not easy in the Citadel Council's darkest hour. Then she was told from her superior to watch out for radiation and very high levels of it, specifically wormhole radiation. She didn't know what this was all about, but just what she was told to do. Then she was sworn to keep anything she detected a highly classified secret, if not she has officially forfeited her life and was ordered to be executed on sight. She and almost all of her colleagues all agreed to the form of silence. She of course agreed, she had a family that was made homeless from this war, no, genocide is what it is. Then to make it worse her human husband was M.I.A. and he was somewhere in Turian territory or their homeworld fighting with the Reapers. The Citadel has never been busier than this, even in a time of war. She could no longer go on break to her favorite lunch spot, Mr. Johnson's Fish & Chips. Now she must eat just feet away from her post and have to deal with not having fish & chips for lunch. _'I really miss you, honey,'_ whispered Belizea as she holds their wedding photo. She loved that family of his, they were...

"Radiation Detected! Radiation Detected! Radiation Detected!" screamed her console, making her almost jump from her chair. She quickly shoved the photo back into her shirt and check for what was making the radiation and if any civilians were in the area. Thankfully there was not any in the surrounding area when a voice came through the comms. with a HUGE PLANET like object coming up on scanners.

"This is Contender-class ancilla Offensive Bias. Fleet Commander of Freedom Breathes Everlasting Life of the Forerunner Capitol, Maethrillian. We will be waiting for your arrival or request to dock."

That message was of course not open to the public and was broadcasted on the Council's private channel. _'What the hell is an Ancilla!? Is it an A.I.!? It's in charge of a Fleet!? And what in the Goddess name is the 'Maethrillian'!?_ questioned Belizea in shock. Then she brought up her cameras to the designated area where all the radiation was coming from. Her eyes almost popped out at the sight of the planetoid and the neighboring ships. Some the size of corvettes and frigates, while others were Super-Dreadnoughts and Mega Dreadnoughts at six kilometers long. What has she got herself into now?

 **Citadel Council Chambers, meeting room-A Arrival of Maethrillian**

Almost at the same time, the Comms. Specialist brought up the visuals of Maethrillian and all of her beauty and her detachment fleet. In a chorus of spiritual cursing the Councilors, Admiral Hackett, and the Comms. Specialist said _'By The Spirits!'_ , or _'By The Goddess!'_. Then a loud voice came over their provided comms. channels, "This is Contender-class ancilla Offensive Bias. Fleet Commander of Life Breathes Everlasting Victory of the Forerunner Capitol, Maethrillian. We will be waiting for your arrival or request to dock."

Councilors and Admiral Hackett didn't respond to the request but just stared at the planetoid space station they called the Maethrillian. Tevos was the first one to speak.

"Comms. specialist, get me a line to Offensive Bias and Maethrill l...l...ian," stuttered Tevos, now scared of the Spartans and the Forerunners. She was expecting something that was twice or three times as big as the Citadel, not something that would make it look like a small frigate.

"Uh uh uh yeah, yes Councilor," stuttered the Comms. specialist gathering her wits back. "Here it is."

"Councilor," replied Offensive.

"Uh Hello. I am Councilor Tevos, of the Asari Republics. With me are my fellow Councilors, Councilor Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy, Councilor Valern of the Salarian Union, and Admiral Hackett representing the Human Systems Alliance. We humbly welcome you to the Citadel."

"Thank you Councilor for the warm welcome. I and the Reclaimers are people of action and few words. We wish to just go straight to the point of things."

"Yes, a Military Alliance!" exclaimed Tevos, now having the fear of an A.I. on the Citadel grow. But what choice did she have? "We would love to visit your, uh beautiful station, but some of our leaders will need Quantum communication devices."

"Worry not Councilor, we have already fix that problem. Do you wish to have a tour of The Forerunner's Capitol, Maethrillian?"

"Unfortunately no. We are pressed for time, Offensive Bias."

"Do you and your fellow Councilors wish to speak with Commander Shepard. I'm sure she will have something to say. "

 **Undisclosed Location, Cerberus Space station.**

"Sir?" asked a Special Agent.

"There has been an unexpected development. We intercepted communications between Commander Shepard and the Council on an Alliance with an intergalactic species or species. Just a couple days ago there have been some whispers about a space station call Maethrillian coming to the Citadel. You are to lead a team of infiltration specialists to find the technology that gave them the ability to travel the intergalactic void. Inspect everything they have on that space station. Unfortunately, it will be arriving any minute now. Hopefully, the Council will be there usual selves," said The Illusive Man.

"Full of red-tape and two thumbs up their asses," stated the Special Agent.

"On to another note. The species on this Maethrillian are Human ."

"Sir? How is that possible?"

"Unknown. Little to nothing is known about them, but their technology can cross the void of intergalactic space. Technology like that is invaluable."

"I understand, sir."

"Dismissed," ordered the Illusive Man as the Special Agent cut the line and he went back to enjoying his fags and whiskey.

 **Andromeda Galaxy, UNSCNV Infinity-Class Supercarrier Infinity, S-Deck**

"She is only out here, because of me. We are soldiers, not executioners," stated Captain Lasky to Commander Palmer.

"Halsey knew what she was doing. She made her friends with Humanity's sworn enemy," replied Palmer firmly root in Admiral Osman's order.

"I'm serious! We shouldn't have to execute a civilian. Jul 'Mdama most likely tried to capture Dr. Glassman for whatever knowledge he knew. Or to some Forerunner tech."

"No, but it has to be done," stated Palmer just as firmly as before. "And I don't trust anyone else to do it right," Palmer finished.

"There must be another," said Captain Lasky as he was cut off by Palmer.

"I know Tom. And I won't see you court-martialed over that woman."

"Stand down, Spartan!" order Lasky. Sarah was taken back by this. He never just called her spartan, but Commander Palmer, Spartan Palmer, or Sarah. He was serious.

"Orders are orders, Tom. This isn't my first rodeo," said Palmer softly as she puts on her helmet and heads toward the Pelican Bay. She was a bit hurt by his words towards her.

"I don't suppose it is," said Lasky as Palmer leaves from earshot distance. "Roland. Where is Fireteam Majestic right now?"

"They have successfully regrouped with Spartan Thorne and Dr. Glassman near the place Jul 'Mdama was last seen," answered Roland. "Captain? What are you doing?"

"Relay new orders. Regardless of their condition. Kill Jul 'Mdama, Detain Commander Palmer from conducting an illegal assassination, and destroy or capture any Forerunner technology Jul 'Mdama wishes to get his hands!"

"Captain!? Admiral Os," Roland as he too was cut off.

"I gave you an order Roland!"

"Yessir!"

Lasky nervously makes his way back to the C.I.C. muttering to himself, " Please god let me be right."

AN: OOOOOOHHHHHHH so the plot thickens. I know people will question the Precursor-Ancient Humanity-San'shyuum/ Flood war. Precursor versus Precursors would be absolutely devastating and destructive. How did the flood not just do as their name implies? You know how the Precursors has an advanced understanding of Neural physics, right? I would be hard press to spread out like how it wants to but would be caught every time the Keymind tried. Of course, some would slip by, but that is rare. They would, for the most part, be equals and try to kill each other. The Keymind thought it could just outlast them. Then Humanity and the San'shyuum showed up on their radar and destroyed ten Flood worlds. Then came the mad dash to finish the fight, but couldn't cause they couldn't escape the Precursors and their allies. It was a wild rollercoaster of back and forward. And only recently did the Key mind slip up and died. With no Keymind, they were down to Gravemind status, and that didn't last too long. With no Gravemind or a Keymind Flood, forms were easy pickings. Now to the present. Flood spore-infested worlds are in and around the Attican Traverse space and in the Terminus systems. Sparatus is still being an ass. Maybe when they meet, He'll rethink it on the Liberation Palaven, Taetrus, and other colonies. Offensive knows a little too much about the Citadel Council for there comfort, two gigantic spaceships and more to build (The Domination-Class Super Heavy Battleship and the Hybrid Fortstress/Infinity- Class Supercarrier). How will the populace and the Council react to them allowing civilians on to Maethrillian? Will the populace be in an uproar of A.I.s having such a space station, ground forces to invade any planets, weapons to mass slaughter entire armies, and a fleet capable of completely annihilating any challenger. Well, you just have to wait and see. Next Chapter, Storming the Beach.

Azrael The Deplorable Out!


End file.
